Propaganda experiences

[kailhun]

I like the idea of stealing cities away through propaganda (the old 'here's x gold, join us my friends'). Problem is: it hardly ever seems to work.

One problem is of course that espionage enters the game rather late. Buying cities with spies was possible earlier in the game in civ 1 and 2, as I remember.
A second problem is that espionage comes after democracy and that the latter makes civs immune to the former.
A third problem is that even when it is an option, cities never seem to go for it. It's 'thanks for the cash, but we'll stay with the old gang'.

So what factors make a city ripe for propaganda?
And a more concrete question: do capitals ever defect?

Robert

[The Templar]

It's worked for me about 25% of the time. I think it works best when attempting to subvert small cities away from the capital. At least I've found it prohibitively expensive to attempt to subvert any other cities.

[Zealot]

It never worked for me. I haven't tried it for a long time, since it was always a waste of (a lot) of money.