Japan has had five prime ministers in five years
Japan's leader answers to the ruling party rather than to voters directly, so a bad poll or a scandal can end a premiership within a year.
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Cambodia's 1993 election was the UN's biggest peacekeeping bet
In May 1993 the UN staged Cambodia's election under a 22,000-strong force. The royalists won 58 seats to 51, and the coalition that followed broke up in 1997.
Beijing promised Hong Kong 50 years of its own way of life
Britain says China seriously breached the 1984 treaty by removing bookseller Lee Po in 2015. Beijing says one country, two systems could outlast 2047.
Australia's 1975 dismissal and the palace letters
Sir John Kerr sacked Gough Whitlam in 1975. Letters released in 2020 show the palace told him a week earlier that the reserve powers still existed.
Germany's Basic Law lets judges ban a party outright
Germany's constitution lets its Federal Constitutional Court ban a political party outright, though it has done so only twice since 1945.
Iceland's Althing is called the oldest parliament. It has a gap.
Iceland dates its Althing to 930 and calls it the oldest parliament, though the assembly stopped sitting for about 45 years.
Ethiopia's constitution builds each state around an ethnic group
Ethiopia's 1995 constitution built its states on ethnicity, and lets any group that qualifies form its own. It has not stopped border violence.
Australia's parliament passed compulsory voting in under an hour
A senator from Tasmania proposed the 1924 bill. Both houses passed it unanimously in under an hour, and turnout has stayed above 90% since.