Solomon Islands, with a population of approximately 450,000, is
an archipelago stretching over 840 miles in the South Pacific.
Its government is a modified parliamentary system consisting of
a single-chamber legislative assembly of 50 members. Executive
authority is vested in the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. The
Prime Minister, elected by a majority vote of Parliament,
selects his own Cabinet. Political legitimacy derives from
direct election by secret ballot. There have been five general
elections since independence in 1978, most recently in August
1997. The judiciary is independent. A police force of
approximately 900 persons under civilian control is responsible
for law enforcement and border security. About 75 percent of the
population engage to some extent in subsistence farming and
fishing and have little involvement in the cash economy.
Commercial activities include some plantation production of
copra, cocoa, and palm oil, one fish cannery, a gold mine on
Guadalcanal, and small resort and diving ent