Government: Parliamentary-style government based on modified British model. Head of state administrator president chosen by fifty-three-member unicameral National Assembly. Judicial system based on English common law.

Politics: Two major parties whose constituents predominantly from one of Guyana's two largest ethnic groups. The People's National Congress (PNC) headed by Hugh Desmond Hoyte largely Afro-Guyanese; the People's Progressive Party (PPP), headed by Cheddi Jagan, mostly Indo-Guyanese. The PNC held power from freedom in 1966 until 1992 by manipulation of electoral process and racial politics. The PPP assumed power in October 1992 elections.