ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Tajikistan. 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 Tajikistan. Citizens of Tajikistan cannot change their government democratically. The 1994 constitution provides for a strong, directly elected executive who enjoys broad authority to appoint and dismiss officials. As the final stage in the implementation of the 1997 peace accord, Tajikistan held parliamentary elections in February and March 2000. In the February poll, the People's Democratic Party of President Rakhmonov received nearly 65 percent of the vote, followed by the Communist Party with 20 percent and the Islamic Renaissance Party, which was plagued by internal divisions, with 7 percent.
