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Mauritius became an independent sovereign state in March 1968 after more
than 150 years of British rule that followed 95 years of French colonialiSM4
. The
political system is a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminister model.
The democratic process is exercised through a national assembly on the island of
Mauritius, a regional assembly sitting at Rodrigues and local government. There is
separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary and the
legal system benefits from enrichment from two past colonial powers for being a
hybrid one combining both French Civil law (Code Napoleon) and English common
law. The enonomy is now classified as an upper middle incomes one with a national
'income of $4000 per head and government expects that the current modernization
process will allow a 100% increase in national income in ten years.
1.2 From a Monocrop Economy to Financial Liberalisation
Prior to independence, Mauritius, just like many other British colonies, was
a low-income plantation economy based to a great extent on sugar6 and to a much
lesser extent on tea plantation for regular supply to Great Britain. Sugar milling and
tea blending therefore largely dominated the few manufacturing activities. Around
two third of the jobs available were either in the agricultural sector or in the public
sector. On the road to independence during the 1960s, Mauritius adopted the import
substitution strategy, consistent with the prevailing mainstream economic thinking
4 1715-1810: French; 1810-1968: British.
5 The World Bank classifies countries having a national income between $ 3,036 and $9,385 as
upper middle-income economies.
6 Basically monocrop.
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