ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Mongolia. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Mongolia. Mongolians can change their government through elections and enjoy most basic rights. The 1992 constitution vested executive powers in a prime minister and created a 76-seat Great Rural, which is directly elected for a four-year term. The dominant political issue in post-Communist Mongolia has been the pace and extent of economic reforms. Government efforts to foster a market economy have helped create fledgling private sector but have also contributed to soaring unemployment and other social miseries. It also must transform Radio Mongolia's parent company, Mongolian Radio and Television, into public broadcasting service headed by an independent board of governors.
