So here's my idea: Every 2 years the class I civilization is inspected by an outside Class III civilization. If the Class I civilization has made progress then they will move on. If the Class I civilization has made little to no progress the outside class III will take away a certain piece of critical technology (this could be computers, servers, farming equipment) As you can imagine, the Citizens hate it. So they work and they work in fear of getting their things removed. This creates a sort of "tree effect" in the evolution. The Class III thinks that this fear then generates more productivity and will cause them to expand at an exponential rate. But does this fear actually work?
(for anyone wondering, I'm referring to the Kardashev scale)
Does this method have a positive or negative effect on the development class I civilization.
Directly from wikipedia (Kardashev scale)
A Type I civilization—also called a planetary civilization—can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.
A Type II civilization—also called a stellar civilization—can harness the total energy of its planet's parent star (the most popular hypothetical concept being the Dyson sphere—a device which would encompass the entire star and transfer its energy to the planet(s)).
A Type III civilization—also called a galactic civilization—can control energy on the scale of its entire host galaxy.