This is a quite thorough exploration of the way solutions to political problems invoke counterfactuals. Sufficiently so that apart from our diversion to the signalling implications there is not too mutch to add!

When discussing such problems a counterfactual assumption of influence over one agent must be assumed. Some such assumptions are more useful than others. While at one end of the scale it is futile to assume we have direct control over politically distant agents, assuming for the sake of the discussion that I only have control of my own actions makes the reasoning somewhat complicated. It can be simpler (and more fun) to first analyse the problem with counterfactual control over the government and use this as an intermediate step when analysing what more local actions may be useful.