Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Overview of democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean can be compared^[1] according to the different definitions of democracy.^[2] The V-Dem Democracy indices considers the Latin American and Caribbean countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 as Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Jamaica and countries with lowest democracy scores as Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.^[3] Democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.^[4]^[5] Democratization is reported by V-Dem Democracy Report 2024 in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Bolivia.^[6]

Measures of democracy

The table below shows Latin American and Caribbean countries scored on 2 high-level V-Dem Democracy indices and 4 mid-level Democracy Component indices published in 2024 evaluating the state of democracy in year 2023.^[6]^[3]^[7]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (14th edition)
Country	Democracy Indices		Democracy Component Indices
Country	Electoral	Liberal	Liberal	Egalitarian	Participatory	Deliberative
Costa Rica	0.868	0.816	0.953	0.886	0.648	0.945
Uruguay	0.845	0.77	0.922	0.821	0.768	0.849
Argentina	0.84	0.69	0.803	0.769	0.616	0.696
Chile	0.838	0.786	0.956	0.723	0.661	0.939
Jamaica	0.798	0.678	0.847	0.829	0.59	0.807
Barbados	0.796	0.678	0.849	0.825	0.295	0.887
Brazil	0.784	0.692	0.887	0.592	0.643	0.925
Trinidad and Tobago	0.753	0.635	0.84	0.788	0.577	0.928
Suriname	0.753	0.631	0.837	0.713	0.572	0.773
Panama	0.73	0.571	0.76	0.541	0.518	0.737
Colombia	0.704	0.565	0.793	0.528	0.648	0.695
Peru	0.699	0.576	0.819	0.519	0.622	0.506
Dominican Republic	0.685	0.438	0.577	0.46	0.595	0.837
Ecuador	0.646	0.467	0.689	0.488	0.759	0.54
Bolivia	0.586	0.353	0.53	0.595	0.632	0.541
Paraguay	0.579	0.426	0.697	0.315	0.535	0.493
Honduras	0.534	0.394	0.695	0.389	0.544	0.675
Mexico	0.534	0.299	0.476	0.452	0.654	0.545
Guyana	0.512	0.332	0.578	0.686	0.513	0.38
Guatemala	0.505	0.309	0.536	0.294	0.489	0.46
El Salvador	0.388	0.111	0.151	0.315	0.469	0.261
Haiti	0.214	0.066	0.152	0.128	0.259	0.597
Venezuela	0.211	0.055	0.115	0.285	0.482	0.067
Cuba	0.176	0.058	0.151	0.771	0.236	0.3
Nicaragua	0.17	0.027	0.042	0.306	0.28	0.033

References

^ Geissel, Brigitte; Kneuer, Marianne; Lauth, Hans-Joachim (2016). "Measuring the quality of democracy: Introduction". International Political Science Review. 37 (5). Sage Publications: 571–579. doi:10.1177/0192512116669141. ISSN 0192-5121. JSTOR 26556872. S2CID 151808737. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
^ Greenwood, Shannon (2022-12-06). "Appendix A: Classifying democracies". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
^ ^a ^b V-Dem Institute (2024). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 7 March 2024.
^ Hellinger, D.C. (2020). Comparative Politics of Latin America: Democracy at Last? (3rd ed.). Routledge
^ Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Compilation of Selected Indices, Carla Y. Davis-Castro, Congressional Research Service, accessed 2023
^ ^a ^b Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy
^ Coppedge, Michael, et al. Varieties of democracy: Measuring two centuries of political change. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Caribbean

Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Cuba
Curaçao
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Grenada
Haiti
Jamaica
Puerto Rico
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Sint Maarten
Trinidad and Tobago

Central America

Belize
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua
Panama

Middle America

Mexico

South America

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela

Dependencies not included. Semi-autonomous territories are in italics.

v t e Elections in Latin America and the Caribbean
Caribbean	Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Haiti Jamaica Puerto Rico Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Maarten Trinidad and Tobago
Central America	Belize Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama
Middle America	Mexico
South America	Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador French Guiana Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela
Dependencies not included. Semi-autonomous territories are in italics.

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