Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mexico, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.
The list was derived by process of elimination. Exclusion from the list was determined by way of the national government which prevailed over the geographic area in question at the time the excluding condition existed.
You just beat me! I saw yours when I was figuring out which number we were on. At least #59 is scheduled and taken care of.
Countries that never changed flags after the institution of its present constitution and/or current regime?
Ha ha! Good to have one teed up in advance. We’ll need number 60 teed up in advance, too, since we’ll both be at Leaguefest on Monday the 28th.
If your guess is correct, I have no idea. It’s certainly not what I was thinking of.
Nice to see that American Exceptionalism excludes us from that list of losers. Are harmonicas involved?
By national government, do you mean governing body (ie the state) or do you mean the government in the way parliamentary people use the term (the administration in power).
I refer to the nation-state, as opposed to, say, the “Thatcher Government” or the “Kennedy Administration.”
…also, Yugoslavia? So we’re talking somewhere between 1929 – 1992?
And since Kiribati wasn’t independent until 1979, I guess this narrows down the period to sometime between 1979 – 1992.
Prior to 1979, I would have treated Kiribati as a component part of the UK for purposes of this question, in much the same way that I would treat contemporary Martinique as a component part of France.
Maybe another example will clarify this better: Hungary was excluded from the list, but only after it separated from Austria. Hungary’s exclusion does not reflect on Austria’s.
Upon reflection, I may have erroneously omitted some Caribbean and Pacific archipalego nations, although I did my best to not do that.
Okay, thanks.
Hmm, well this gets interesting, because now I’m quite frankly, a bit puzzled.
…which admittedly reflects badly upon my knowledge of comparative government. The shame and the woe.
Countries without an elected President?
The Western Hemisphere countries listed are mostly, if not all under Presidential systems.
My initial reaction was bicameralism with a head of state that’s not the same as head of government, but that wouldn’t explain the lack of the FRG. Nor is it federalism, especially since the US isn’t there.
The presence of France and Great Britain on the same list by elimination actually makes me curious.
One possibility, you had cohabitation. Could be before the French constitution was amended to make cohabitation more difficult…
But the way you described the excluding list makes it sound more like it’s a fundamental nature of the state rather than the governing party.
I was thinking along the same lines… head of state and chief of government distinction, but Canada would be on the list.
Is it related to rules-of-citizenship, maybe?
Countries that never boycotted an Olympic Games?
Steve is so close to the correct answer that I may as well call it for him.
I was thinking of countries that have never been the subject of an Olympic boycott — whether self-imposed like the U.S.A. or the U.S.S.R., or imposed by the IOC like the Republic of South Africa.