ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Cote D'lvoire. 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 Cote D'lvoire. Cote d'lvoire gained independence from France in 1960, and President Felix Houphouét-Boigny ruled until his death in 1993. Cote D'lvoire became an African model for economic growth and political stability. A plunge in the 1990s of the world price of cocoa, Cote D'lvoire’s chief export, and later coffee, its fifth largest export, considerably hurt the economy. The people of Cote D'lvoire have only partially been able to carry out their constitutional right to freely and fairly elect their leaders.
