Keeping up with the ever-changing global political landscape can be daunting. Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities is designed to make the task easier. The volumes provide accessible, authoritative background information about governments, political issues, and citizen politics in 198 regions, including every independent nation of the world and several territories under the jurisdiction of sovereign countries. Because no nation operates in complete isolation, Governments of the World reaches beyond regional issues to explore the roles of international courts and supranational institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union.

The articles vary in length, ranging from 500 to 3,500 words. In general, we have provided shorter articles for countries that are comparatively small in geographic size or population or, in the judgment of the editors, of lesser economic or strategic significance. This does not mean countries represented by shorter articles are unimportant or...