Appendixes Vanuatu, a small South Pacific island nation of approximately 170,000 people which was jointly administered by Britain and France prior to its independence in 1980, has a parliamentary form of government with a 52-member Parliament, a Prime Minister, and a President. The latter's powers are largely ceremonial, except when acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers.
Political legitimacy is based on majority rule.
The courts are normally independent of executive interference. Subsistence and small-scale agricultural production and fishing support more than 80 percent of the population. Copra, cocoa, and beef cattle are the main cash crops. Reports of police brutality, and extremely poor prison conditions, together with discrimination and violence against women, were the country's major human rights problems. There were no reports of political or other extrajudicial killings.