Political Handbook of the World 1986 Edition

This huge textbook has information on every country in the world. From the history and economy, to current issues and foreign relations of each country. Even the ministers and legislature as well as the newspapers and how many radios and televisions in each nation. The back of the book has information on intergovernmental organizations. Some entries go into great detail regarding coups and leaders. Its interesting to see official figures and information instead of reading about things on the internet So if anyone has a country that they want information posted on I will post the whole entry from the book thanks.

Can that be found online somewhere? Who published it, in which country?
Also please do Yugoslavia.

It was a reference book from the University I go to and I dont think it can be found online but yes I can start posting information just a question how many words per post

Its American
CSA Publications

This is the beginning so kind of a sample

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Political Status:
Independent monarchy constituted December 1, 1918 ; Communist People's Republic, with federal system of government, instituted November 29,1945 ; Socialist Federal Republic proclaimed April 7, 1963 ; under collegial presidency instituted July 29, 1971 ; present constitution adopted February 21, 1974

Area 98,776 sq. mi (255,804 sq. km)

Population 22,427,585 (1981 Census) 23,396,000 (1986 Estimate)

Major Urban Centers (1981 Census) Belgrade (1,470,073); Zagreb (768,700); Skopje (506,547); Sarajevo (448,500); Ljubljana (305,200)

Official Languages: The principal languages are Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, and Macedonian; however, under the 1974 constitution all languages of the peoples and nationalities of Yugoslavia are accorded official status

Monetary Unit Yugoslav Dinar (market rate March 1,1986, 309.37 dinars = $1US)

President of the Presidency
Sinan Hasini (Kosovo); elected to the presidency for a five-year term on May 15, 1984 ; became President for a one-year term on May 15,1986 , succeeding by rotation, Radovan Vlajkovic (Vojvodina)

Vice President of the Presidency
Lazar Mojsov (Macedonia); elected to the presidency for a five-year term on May 15, 1984 became Vice President for a one-year term on May 15, 1986 , succeeding , by rotation Sinan Hasini (Kosovo)

Other Members of the Presidency
Branko Mikulic (Bosnia-Herzegovina) , Stane Dolanc (Slovenia) , Gen. Nikola Ljubicic (Serbia) , Josip Vrhovec (Croatia) , Veselin Djuranovic (Montenegro) , Radovan Vlajkovic (Vojvodina) , Vidoje Zarkovic (President of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the league of Communists of Yugoslavia , ex officio). The constituency members are listed in rotational sequence

President of Federal Executive Council (Prime Minister)
Branko Mikulic nominated by the Presidency on January 6, 1986 and elected for a four-year term by the federal assembly on May 16 , succeeding Milka Planinc Yugoslavia

The Country

Situated on the Western side of the Balkan Peninsula between the Adriatic and the Danube , Yugoslavia extends in a southeasterly direction from the Austrian Alps to the upper Vardar Valley , which it shares with Greece. The northeastern section of the country , comprising portions of Serbia and Croatia , forms part of the Danubian Plain This region , together with the more rugged Slovenia in the northwest , is more highly developed agriculturally and industrially than are the mountainous republics of Bosnia Herzegovina in the southwest , Montenegro in the south , and Macedonia in the southeast. The predominately South Slav population includes a number of distinct peoples with kindred but separate languages and cultures, the 1981 census identifying the primary ethnic groups as Serbs (37 percent), Croats (20 percent), Bosnian Muslims (9 percent) , Slovenes and Albanians (8 percent each) , Macedonians (6 percent) , Montenegrins (3 percent) , and Hungarians (2 percent). The country's main religious groups are the Serbian Orthodox (Serbs and Macedonians) , Roman Catholic (Croats, Slovenes, Hungarians) and Muslim (Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Albanians, and Turks). In 1980 Women constituted 36 percent of the paid labor force, although this share has been described as declining during the recent period of economic difficulty ; women average 25 percent representation in government and party bodies. Largely undeveloped before World War 2 , Yugoslavia made rapid advances after 1945 under a Communist regime remarkable for its pragmatic and flexible methods of economic management. Initial policies of forced agricultural collectivization were progressively modified following Yugoslavia's rupture with the USSR in 1948 , and private farms currently account for about two- thirds of agricultural output. In industry, worker participation in the "social-self management" of enterprises was initiated as early as 1950 with later reforms further institutionalizing decentralization while moving the country toward a Western style market economy. Close trading relations with the West were established during the 1949-1953 economic boycott by the Soviet bloc and in 1966 Yugoslavia became the first communist state to conclude a trade agreement with the European Economic Community. Recent economic growth has been sluggish a targeted annual increase of 2.5 percent not proving attainable under the 1981-1985 five year plan. Both inflation and unemployment are also chronic problems the former climbing to more than 55 percent and the latter hovering at 13 percent in 1984 although austerity measures succeeded in converting a current account deficit of $1.6 Billion in 1982 to substantial surpluses in each of the following two years

Government and Politics is next

Post the Central African Republic

I don't quite follow. What's of particular interest in this book which sets it apart from others of its period?

Do Albania. (although I doubt it'll reveal anything of interest to me)

Are you Albanian Ismail?

Yeqon wrote:

Are you Albanian Ismail?

No, but I've read enough works on and from Albania that I don't think a general handbook/guidebook/factbook would reveal anything new to me.

The following are books specifically about Albanian history in some form which I have
* Letter of the CC of the Party of Labour and the Government of Albania to the CC of the Communist Party and the Government of China. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1978.
* Nagel's Encyclopedia-Guide Albania. Geneva: Nagel Publishers. 1990.
* Portrait of Albania. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1982.
* Some Questions of Socialist Construction in Albania and of the Struggle Against Revisionism. Tirana: Naim Frashëri Publishing House. 1971.
* The Party of Labour of Albania on the Building and the Life of the Party. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1974.
* The Theory and Practice of the Revolution. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1977.
* Academy of Sciences, Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania, & Tirana University. The National Conference of Studies on the Anti-fascist National Liberation War of the Albanian People. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1975.
* Academy of Sciences of the PSR of Albania. The Albanians and Their Territories. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1985.
* Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Albania. The Truth on Kosova. Tirana: Encyclopedia Publishing House. 1993.
* Alia, Ramiz. Our Enver. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1988.
* Alia, Ramiz. Report to the 9th Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1986.
* Alia, Ramiz. The Revolution: A Question Taken Up for Solution. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1978.
* Ash, William. Pickaxe and Rifle: The Story of the Albanian People. London: Howard Baker Press Ltd. 1974.
* Bailey, Robert. The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle. London: Vintage Books. 2009.
* Bethell, Nicholas. The Great Betrayal: The Untold Story of Kim Philby's Biggest Coup. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1984.
* Biberaj, Elez. Albania: A Socialist Maverick. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1990.
* Biberaj, Elez. Albania and China: A Study of an Unequal Alliance. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1986.
* Biberaj, Elez. Albania in Transition: The Rocky Road to Democracy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 1998.
* Bihiku, Koço. A History of Albanian Literature. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1980.
* Ceka, Neritan. The Illyrians to the Albanians. Tirana: Migjeni. 2005.
* Cusack, Dymphna. Illyria Reborn. London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1966.
* Davies, Edmund F. Illyrian Venture: The Story of the British Military Mission in Enemy-Occupied Albania, 1943-1944. London: Bodley Head. 1952.
* de Waal, Clarissa. Albania Today: A Portrait of Post-Communist Turbulence. New York: I.B. Taurus & Co Ltd. 2005.
* Elsie, Robert. Historical Dictionary of Albania. Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. 2010.
* Fischer, Bernd J. Albania at War, 1939-1945. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. 1999.
* Fischer, Bernd J. King Zog and the Struggle for Stability in Albania. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs. 1984.
* Frasheri, Kristo. The History of Albania: A Brief Survey. Tirana. 1964.
* Gardiner, Leslie. Curtain Calls: Travels in Albania, Romania and Bulgaria. Newton Abbot: Readers Union. 1977.
* Gawrych, George W. The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874-1913. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. 2006.
* Griffith, William E. Albania and the Sino-Soviet Rift. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press. 1963.
* Guy, Nicola. The Birth of Albania: Ethnic Nationalism, the Great Powers of World War I and the Emergence of Albanian Independence. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. 2012.
* Halliday, Jon (ed). The Artful Albanian: The Memoirs of Enver Hoxha. London: Chatto & Windus. 1986.
* Hamilton, Bill & Bhasker Solanki. Albania: Who Cares? Grantham: Autumn House. 1992.
* Heaton-Armstrong, Duncan. The Six Month Kingdom: Albania 1914. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. 2005.
* Hamm, Harry. Albania: China's Beachhead in Europe. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. 1963.
* Hibbert, Reginald. Albania's National Liberation Struggle: The Bitter Victory. London: Pinter. 1991.
* Hoxha, Enver. Laying the Foundations of the New Albania. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1984.
* Hoxha, Enver. Report Submitted to the 7th Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1977.
* Hoxha, Enver. Report on the Role and Tasks of the Democratic Front for the Complete Triumph of Socialism in Albania. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1974.
* Hoxha, Enver. The Khrushchevites. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1984.
* Hoxha, Enver. The Party of Labor of Albania in Battle with Modern Revisionism. Tirana: Naim Frashëri Publishing House. 1972.
* Hoxha, Enver. The Superpowers. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1986.
* Hoxha, Nexhmije. Some Fundamental Questions of the Revolutionary Policy of the Party of Labour of Albania About the Development of the Class Struggle. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1977.
* Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania. History of the Party of Labor of Albania. Tirana: Naim Frashëri Publishing House. 1971.
* Jacques, Edwin E. The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present Volume 2. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. 1995.
* Kola, Paulin. The Search for Greater Albania. London: C. Hurst & Co. 2003.
* Kota, Filip. Two Opposing Lines in the World Trade Union Movement. New York: Gamma Publishing. 1976.
* Logoreci, Anton. The Albanians: Europe's Forgotten Survivors. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1977.
* Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo: A Short History. New York: New York University Press. 1999.
* Marmullaku, Ramadan. Albania and the Albanians. London: C. Hurst & Co. 1975.
* Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee. Human Rights in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Minneapolis, MN. 1990.
* Myrdal, Jan and Gun Kessle. Albania Defiant. New York: Monthly Review Press. 1976.
* O'Donnell, James S. A Coming of Age: Albania under Enver Hoxha. New York: Columbia University Press. 1999.
* Omari, Luan & Stefanaq Pollo. The History of the Socialist Construction of Albania. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1988.
* Omari, Luan. The People's Revolution in Albania and the Question of State Power. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1986.
* Pano, Nicholas C. The People's Republic of Albania. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press. 1968.
* Pollo, Stefanaq & Arben Puto. The History of Albania: From its Origins to the Present Day. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1981.
* Prifti, Peter R. Socialist Albania since 1944: Domestic and Foreign Developments. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 1978.
* Puto, Arben. From the Annals of British Diplomacy. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. 1981.
* Schnytzer, Adi. Stalinist Economic Strategy in Practice: The Case of Albania. New York: Oxford University Press. 1982.
* Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie and Bernd J. Fischer (ed). Albanian Identities: Myth and History. London: C. Hurst & Co. Ltd. 2002.
* Sjöberg, Orjan & Michael L. Wyzan (ed). Economic Change in the Balkan States: Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1991.
* Skendi, Stavro (ed). Albania. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. 1956.
* Skendi, Stavro. The Albanian National Awakening, 1878-1912. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1967.
* Smiley, David. Albanian Assignment. London: Sphere Books. 1985.
* State University of Tirana. Problems of the Struggle for the Complete Emancipation of Women. New York: Gamma Publishing Co. 1975.
* Thomas, John I. Education for Communism: School and State in the People's Republic of Albania. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. 1969.
* Tomes, Jason. King Zog: Self-Made Monarch of Albania. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. 2007.
* Vickers, Miranda. Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo. New York: Columbia University Press. 1998.
* Vickers, Miranda. The Albanians: A Modern History. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. 1999.
* Ward, Philip. Albania: A Travel Guide. New York: The Oleander Press. 1983.
* Winnifrith, Tom (ed). Perspectives on Albania. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1992.

The following materials which I have contain chapters or notable discussion on Albanian affairs:
* Barker, Elisabeth. British Policy in South-East Europe in the Second World War. London: Macmillan. 1976.
* Blumenfeld, Yorick. Seesaw: Cultural Life in Eastern Europe. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. 1968.
* Brown, J.F. Eastern Europe and Communist Rule. Durham: Duke University Press. 1988.
* Daniels, Anthony. Utopias Elsewhere: Journeys in a Vanishing World. New York: Crown Publishers. 1991.
* Dawson, Andrew H. (ed). Planning in Eastern Europe. London: Croom Helm. 1987.
* Djilas, Milovan. Rise and Fall. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1985.
* Drachkovitch, Milorad M. (ed). East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. 1982.
* Fejtő, François. A History of the People's Democracies: Eastern Europe since Stalin. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books. 1974.
* Freedman, Robert Owen. Economic Warfare in the Communist Bloc: A Study of Soviet Economic Pressure Against Yugoslavia, Albania, and Communist China. New York: Praeger Publishers. 1970.
* Galaty, Michael L. & Charles Watkinson (ed). Archaeology Under Dictatorship. New York: Klewer/Plenum. 2004.
* Glenny, Misha. The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999. England: Penguin. 1999.
* Glenny, Misha. The Rebirth of History: Eastern Europe in the Age of Democracy. England: Penguin. 1993.
* Goldman, Minton F. Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe. New York: M.E. Sharpe. 1997.
* Gran, Peter. Beyond Eurocentrism: A New View of Modern World History. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. 1996.
* Hammond, Thomas T. (ed). The Anatomy of Communist Takeovers. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1975.
* Held, Joseph (ed). The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. 1992.
* Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States. East European Economies: Slow Growth in the 1980s Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1986.
* Kertesz, Stephen D. (ed). East Central Europe and the World: Developments in the Post-Stalin Era. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 1962.
* Legters, Lyman H. Eastern Europe: Transformation and Revolution, 1945-1991. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company. 1992.
* Lendvai, Paul. Eagles in Cobwebs: Nationalism and Communism in the Balkans. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company. 1969.
* MacMillan, Margaret. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. New York: Random House. 2003.
* Radu, Michael (ed). Eastern Europe and the Third World: East vs. South. New York: Praeger Publishers. 1981.
* Schapiro, Leonard (ed). Political Opposition in One-Party States. London: Macmillan. 1972.
* Schönfeld, Roland (ed). Industrialisierung und gesellschaftlicher Wandel in Sudosteuropa. Munich: Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft. 1989.
* Starr, Richard F. Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. 1988.
* Stavrianos, L.S. The Balkans since 1453. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1958.
* Swearingen, Roger (ed). Leaders of the Communist World. New York: The Free Press. 1971.
* Treadway, John D. The Falcon & the Eagle: Montenegro and Austria-Hungary, 1908-1914. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. 1983.
* Wolff, Robert Lee. The Balkans in Our Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1967.

The following articles I have access to:
* Andrea, Zhaneta. "Archaeology in Albania, 1973-83." Archaeological Reports. 30. (1983-1984): 102-119.
* Austin, Robert. "Fan Noli, Albania and the Soviet Union." East European Quarterly. 30. no. 2 (June 1996): 153-169.
* Backer, Berit. "Self-Reliance under Socialism - The Case of Albania." Journal of Peace Research. 19. no. 4 (1982): 355-367.
* Emadi, Hafizullah. "Women's Emancipation and Strategy of Development in Albania." Economic and Political Weekly. 27. no. 19 (May 9, 1992): 999-1002.
* Fischer, Bernd J. "Fan Noli and the Albanian Revolutions of 1924." East European Quarterly. 22. no. 2 (June 1988): 147-158.
* Hall, Derek R. "Foreign tourism under socialism: The Albanian 'Stalinist' model." Annals of Tourism Research. 11. no. 4 (1984): 539-555.
* Kaser, Michael. "Albania's Self-Chosen Predicament." The World Today. 35. no. 6 (June 1979): 259-268.
* Korkuti, Muzafer, and Karl M. Petruso. "Archaeology in Albania." American Journal of Archaeology. 97. no. 4 (October 1993): 703-743.
* Lemel, Harold. "Rural Land Privatisation and Distribution in Albania: Evidence from the Field." Europe-Asia Studies. 50. no. 1 (January 1998): 121-140.
* Mëhilli, Elidor. "Defying De-Stalinization: Albania's 1956." Journal of Cold War Studies. 13. no. 4 (Fall 2011): 4-56.
* Nearing, Scott. "Approach to Albania." Monthly Review. 20. no. 1 (May 1968): 33-39.
* Pipa, Arshi. "Fan Noli as a National and International Albanian Figure." Südost-Forschungen. 43. (1984): 241-270.
* Sandström, Per, and Örjan Sjöberg. "Albanian Economic Performance: Stagnation in the 1980s." Soviet Studies. 43. no. 5 (1991): 931-947.
* Skendi, Stavro. "Albania within the Slav Orbit: Advent to Power of the Communist Party." Political Science Quarterly. 63. no. 2 (June 1948): 257-274.
* Smirnova, N.D. "Albania's 'Red Bishop' Fan Noli." Soviet Studies in History. 13. no. 3 (Winter 1974-1975): 32-56.
* Stavrou, Nikolaos A. "Albanian Communism and the 'Red Bishop'." Mediterranean Quarterly. 7. no. 2 (Spring 1996): 32-59.
* Stavrou, Nikolaos A. "The Sino-Albanian Friendship." World Affairs. 134. no. 2 (Winter, 1971): 234-242.

Holy shit man! yeah well I know where to go to now if I need information on Albania! Very impressive.

Continued from Yugoslavia
Government and Politics
Political background

Following centuries of national struggle against the Turkish and Hapsburg empires , Yugoslavia emerged as a unified state with the formation on December 1 , 1918 , of the Kingdom of the Serbs , Croats , and Slovenes under the Serbian house of Karadjordjevic. Uniting the former independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro with the Croatian , Dalmatian , and Bosnian Herzegovinian territories previously ruled by Austira Hungary , the new entity (formally styled Yugoslavia on October 3 , 1929) was ruled between World Wars I and II as a highly centralized , Serb dominated state in which the Croats became an increasingly disaffected minority. The Serb Croat antagonism which caused many Croats to sympathize with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy continued even after the two axis powers attacked and occupied the country on April 6 , 1941. Wartime resistance to the axis was led by two rival groups , the proroyalist Chetniks under Gen. Draza Mihailovic and the Communist inspired Partisans led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito a Croat who sought to enlist all the country's national groups in the liberation struggle. The Partisans greater effectiveness in opposing the occupation forces and sercuring Allied aid paved the way for their assumption of power at the end of the war. In March 1945 Tito became prime minister in a "Government of national unity" and on November 29 , 1945 the monarchy was abolished and a Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia based on the equality of country's principal national groups was proclaimed. On January 14 , 1953 under a new constitution Tito was elected president of the Republic.
Yugoslavia developed along orthodox Communist lines until 1948 when its refusal to submit to Soviet directives led to its expulsion from the Communist bloc and the imposition of a political and economic blockade by the USSR and its East European allies. Aided by western arms and economic support Yugoslavia maintained its autonomy throughout the Stalin era and by the later 1950s had achieved a partial reconciliation with the Warsaw Pact states although it still insisted on complete independence and the right to find its own "road to socialism" . Internally , Yugoslavia had become the first East European country to evolve institutions that moderated the harsher features of Communist rule and encouraged the development of a democratic form of communism based on new interpretations of Marxism. A federal constitution promulgated in 1963 consolidated the system of "social self management" by attempting to draw the people into economic and administrative decisionmaking at all levels it also expanded the independence of the judiciary increased the responsibilities of the federal legislature and those of the country's six constituent republics and two autonomous provinces and widened freedom of choice in elections

Although communist control remained firm and ideological deviations were sternly repressed the ouster in July 1966 of Vice President Aleksander Rankovic the leading opponent of the new trend indicated Tito's determination to proceed with further reforms. Soviet intervention to halt a similar trend in Czechoslovakia in 1968 failed to dampen this resolve. Rejecting the so called Brezhnev doctrine of "limited sovereignty" among members of the "Socialist commonwealth" Yugoslavia reaffirmed its readiness to fight for its independence if necessary and proceeded with further applications of the "self management" principle. These efforts culminated in the adoption of the nations fourth postwar constitution on February 21 1974 On May 4 1980 after a four month illness Marshall Tito president for life of the republic and of the league of communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) died at the age of 87 the leadership of state and party thereupon passing to collegial executives the state presidency and the presidium of the LCY central committee respectively. The administrative machinery assembled during the 1970s under Tito and his close associate Edward Kardelj (who had died in February 1979) continued to run smoothly on May 15 Cvijetin Mijatovic succeeded Lazar Kolisevski as president of the state presidency for a one year term while on October 20 the presidency of the party presidium rotated also for a one year term to Lazar Moisov The occupants of the two positions for 1985-1986 were Radovan Vlajkovic who succeeded to the state presidency on May 15 and Vldoje Zarkovic whom was named party head on June 25 on May 15 1986 Sinan Hasini was named to a one year term as nominal head of state in succession to Vlajkovic Yugoslavia

Next is Constitution and Government