SUMMARY
The Government of Grenada was first established in early 1974 when the country gained its independence from Great Britain. Grenada is a constitutional monarchy that operates a parliamentary democracy. The parliament consist of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The first Prime Minister of Grenada was Eric Gairy, of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP). The country remained as part of the Commonwealth; hence, the formal head of state has been the British monarch.
In 1979, the New Jewel Movement (NJM), a Marxist-Leninist group led by Maurice Bishop, ousted Prime Minister Gairy in a bloodless coup, and established a People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) with Bishop as prime minister. The new government quickly received support and aid from Soviet-bloc states, such as Cuba, the Soviet Union and North Korea. However, divisions within the NJM soon appeared over the group’s ideological orientation, and hardliners within the group believed that Bishop was too moderate. Tensions culminated in mid-October 1983, as the hard-line faction, led by Bernard Coard and General Hudson Austin, arrested Bishop. On 19 October, a large civilian crowd marched on the place where Bishop and a number of his ministers were being held, triggering shootings by security forces which left many civilians dead. During the disorders, Bishop and his fellow captives were executed.
In the mid of the Cold War, these developments greatly concerned the Government of the United States which already had criticized Grenada for the leftist turn it took when NJM took power a few years earlier. Upon the appeal of the regional organization, the Organisation of East Carribbean States (OECS), the United States launched a military intervention on 25 October 1983 aimed at removing the new Government of Grenada from power. Some 8000 US troops alongside a small Caribbean contingent invaded Grenada and a three-day long interstate conflict unfolded which ended in victory for the invaders.
In the aftermath of the invasion, which was supported by a large percentage of the Grenadian populace, a Caribbean peacekeeping force relieved the American troops. Elections were held in 1984, in which moderate Herbert Blaize from the New National Party, was elected prime minister. In the decades following, the New National Party (NNP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have interchangeably held governmental power.
