new shit you have to keep track of in dharma : you need to use "reform points" to set your government type, it's kind of fun and you'll be warned when you have the points to make a change. as far as i know you just rack up reform points over time, some events will lower them, others increase them.
Centers of Trade can now be manually upgraded (and downgraded for some reason) and will get fucked up if they change hands in a war. If you have lots of cash lying around this is a good way to increase institution spread
Insults can now be made into "scornful insults" by spending prestige, they make the target hate you even more and their enemies like you, good for adding power projection
If you have spare colonists lying around you can now use them to increase development in provinces, it works best in low development provinces but it's a bit of a gamble because you pay colonist upkeep for them (not cheap) and the chance of getting anything out of it is random