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The Democracy Project
Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf holds court in May 2006. (Matt Dunham/Associated Press)
Liberia
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Population
Three million (est.)
Government
Presidential-style republic similar to the U.S. with both a senate and lower house. Also has a dual justice system that deals with some offences based on tribal laws.
Recent history
Long and troubled history since the republic was founded in 1847 by freed U.S. slaves. In August 2003, a UN-inspired peace agreement ended almost two decades of civil war brought on by a bloody military coup in 1980. Elections in 2005 brought Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to power. She is a Harvard grad and former banker who is Africa's first elected female head of state.
Syria
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Population
19 million
Government
Military dominated republic, established after the Second World War, in which the president, currently Bashar al-Assad, is elected by referendum for seven-year terms and then selects the prime minister and other top officials.
Recent history
The second son of former strongman leader Hafez al-Assad, who seized power in 1970 in a bloodless coup and died in July 2000, the British-educated Bashar was not supposed to go into politics. Indeed, he was trained as an ophthalmologist. But when his older brother died unexpectedly in a car accident in 1994, Bashar moved home and succeeded his father.
Once thought to be a Western-leaning reformer who liked the internet and pop music and who was feted by Queen Elizabeth early in his rule, Bashar has since aligned himself with Iran and was a strong supporter of the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah in its fight with Israel in the summer of 2006.
- Related: Syria
In Damascus, Syrians protest the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Palestinian territories August 2006. (Bassem Tellawi/Associated Press)
Palestine Authority
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Population
About 2.5 million in the West Bank and another 1.5 million in the Gaza Strip
Government
The Palestinian National Authority has its own president, Mahmoud Abbas, and prime minister, Ishmail Haniyeh, elected separately and not of the same party. But legally the PNA is transitional administrative body established by the Oslo accords signed by Israel and Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization in 1994. It is the PLO that enjoys international recognition at the UN.
Recent history
In January 2006, Palestinians stunned the world by electing the militant party Hamas in a landslide with 74 of 132 seats over the long-ruling Fatah party. At the time, Hamas had been honouring a ceasefire with Israel but its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist led many Western countries, including Canada, to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars direct aid to the authority. This in turn led to what some have called a humanitarian crisis.
This crisis was compounded in the summer of 2006 when Hamas militants kidnapped a an Israeli soldier, a situation that led to a broader war involving Hezbollah and Lebanon and the return of Israeli tanks to Gaza.
- Related: The Middle East
A Fatah militant holds his weapon during a demonstration against rival Hamas, which had just won the Palestinian election in January 2006. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
Lebanese school children, in central Beirut, shout slogans trying to force the resignation of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Dec. 14, 2006. (Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press)
Lebanon
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Population
3.8 million
Government
Formalized system of power-sharing between the three dominant groups: Maronite Christians, Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. By agreement, the president, who is elected by the National Assembly, is Christian, the prime minister Sunni and the speaker of the legislature Shia. Members to the assembly are elected by a proportional system to represent approximately 15 sectarian groups, according to share of the population.
Recent history
Lebanon endured a long and bloody civil war from 1970 to 1991, resulting in nearly 100,000 deaths. A high-profile political assassination in February 2005 saw neighbouring Syria blamed and forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after nearly 30 years in the country. Israel had withdrawn its troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year occupation, but re-invaded in the summer of 2006 after one of its soldiers was kidnapped by the Lebanon-based Shia militant group, Hezbollah, in a cross-border raid.
- Related: Lebanon
Scotland
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Population
5.1 million
Government
It is one of four countries inside the United Kingdom. It has its own legal system, but it is not a sovereign state. It has its own parliament, which oversees areas outside of the military, social security and international relations. Scotland also sends 72 MPs to the British parliament at Westminster.
Recent history
The Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century was its gift to the world but that gift was sometimes obscured by Scotland's occasionally tortuous relations with its southern neighbour, England. Since the 1970s, there has been a recurrent nationalist movement in Scotland linked to the discovery of North Sea oil. Oil production peaked, however, in 1999 (natural gas two years later) and some see the Scottish nationalist movement going the same path.
Queen Elizabeth II arrives to open a sitting of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in July 1999. (Rui Vieira/Associated Press)
Mexico
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Population
107.7 million
Government
A federal republic with a bicameral legislature, its origins stem from a long revolutionary struggle (1910-20) and centuries as a colony of Spain.
Recent history
Since the revolution, Mexico has been predominantly under the rule of one party, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). That dominance only ended in 2000, when the opposition National Action Party of Vicente Fox took office. Mexico faced an economic crisis with the collapse of the peso in the mid-1990s. The government also faced recurrent resistance from guerrilla fighters in the state of Chiapas. Felipe Calderon replaced Fox as president in early December 2006, but his hold on the post was still being contested by a populist former mayor of Mexico City, who claims that he won the July election.
- Related: Mexico
Mexican legislators fight near the podium of Congress hall on Nov. 28, 2006, just days before President-elect Felipe Calderon is to be sworn in. (Associated Press)
Nicaragua
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Population
5.4 million
Government
A republic with an executive branch and a unicameral legislature.
Recent history
The country has had strained relations with the United States throughout its modern history. U.S. military occupied Nicaragua from 1909 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1933. In the decade after the socialist Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega took power in 1979, the U.S. under President Ronald Reagan assisted the Contras, armed opponents of the Sandinistas. Ortega was turfed from power in 1990, but ran for the presidency in the 2006 election and won.
Supporters of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega cheer as the November 2006 election results come pouring in. (Dario Lopez-MIlls/Associated Press)
Sixteen years after he left Peru's presidency in disgrace, amidst a festering guerrilla war and economic ruin, Alan Garcia, is sworn in for a second chance on July 28, 2006. (Karel Navarro/Associated Press)
Peru
Multimedia
Population
28 million
Government
Home to an ancient civilization, the Incas, Perus was conquered by Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s and finally regained its independence in 1821. A constitutional republic, the president is both the head of state and head of government.
Recent history
After a long period of military rule, Peru became a civilian-run democracy in 1980 but almost immediately faced a long-running insurgency and serious economic problems, which drove former president Alan Garcia from office in 1990. In July 2006 he was returned to power for a second chance, similar to what occurred in Nicaragua with former president Daniel Ortega.
- Related: Peru
Georgian presidential candidate Mikhail Saakashvili casts his ballot in January 2004 holding a clutch of roses, a symbol of the so-called rose revolution. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press)
Georgia
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Population
4.6 million
Government
Georgia, a republic with an executive branch and a unicameral legislature, gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Recent history
Georgians had what might be called a love-hate relationship with Mother Russia. Prominent Georgians, Stalin among them, rose to great power in the Soviet hierarchy but at the same time ordinary Georgians maintained their nationalism, determined to fight against "Russification" of their language. After 1991, the independent country underwent a civil war as its own autonomous provinces fought for their own sovereignty. It has also been engaged in something of a trade war with neighbouring Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
- Related: Georgia
Aceh, Indonesia
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Population
4 million
Government
Aceh is a special territory of Indonesia and is given some autonomy from Jakarta. It has been divided into 17 regencies.
Recent history
The territory is inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups, including the Acehnese who have been fighting an on-again off-again war for independence from Jakarta since about 1980. There are also a significant population of Chinese. On Dec. 26, 2004, a tsunami ravaged coastal areas of the territory killing up to 230,000 there and elsewhere. After the natural disaster, the Acehnese group signed a peace deal.
- Related: Aceh
A worker pauses from helping rebuild houses in the tsunami-ravaged village of Lhok Nga, Aceh province, Indonesia, in June 2006. (Binsar Bakkara/Associated Press)
Washington, D.C.
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Population
580,000
Government
The capital city of the United States is a federal district. The District of Columbia and Washington are governed by a municipal government and a mayor while Congress has the ultimate authority over the city and district.
Recent history
Residents of Washington, D.C., have less representation compared to residents of the U.S. states. They're represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate and also have no representation in the Senate. A proposed amendment that would have allowed the district to participate in the House failed to be ratified by 38 states in 1985. However, people in the district are able to vote for the president and the district also has three electoral college votes.
Not quite the same as New Hampshire's motto: Live free or die. Washington's new licence plates nonetheless get the message across. (Alan Habbick/CBC)
Kosovo
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Population
2.1 million
Government
Kosovo is a province in southern Serbia but it is governed by the UN Mission in Kosovo following the bloody internal strife and so-called ethnic cleansing of the early 1990s. As a result, Serbian laws are not currently valid in the province. There is a 120-member Kosovo Assembly with a prime minister and president that has been given more powers by the UN body. It also has a municipal government.
Recent history
Kosovo wants independence from Serbia, which rejects the idea and instead wants to offer the province another form of limited autonomy. Most Western countries support the move toward independence, while Russia is largely seen as in favour of Serbia's position.
- Related: The Balkans
Serbian orthodox priest waves incense as he performs funeral service for 26 Kosovo Serbs found in the mass grave near the village of Volujak and killed during the 1998-99 conflict. (Srdjan Ilic/Associated Press)