![V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index 2023 Latin America and the Caribbean](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/V-Dem_Electoral_Democracy_Index_2023_Latin_America_and_the_Caribbean.svg)
The Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean can be
compared according to the different definitions of democracy.
The V-Dem Democracy indices considers the Latin American and Caribbean countries with the highest
democracy scores in 2023 as
Costa Rica,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
and countries with lowest democracy scores as
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
.
Democratic backsliding
Democratic backsliding, also called autocratization, is the decline in the democratic characteristics of a political system, and is the opposite of democratization. Democracy is the most popular form of government, with more than half of the nat ...
can be observed in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Democratization is reported by
V-Dem Democracy Report 2024 in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Bolivia.
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.
[Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy](_blank)
/ref>Coppedge, Michael, et al. Varieties of democracy: Measuring two centuries of political change. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
/ref>
See also
* Democracy in Venezuela
References
{{Latin America topics
Democracy by location
Politics of the Caribbean
Politics of South America
Latin America