Uruguay is the most democratic country in South America

Uruguay is the most democratic country in South America; this is reflected in the average score of 8.66 obtained in the Democracy Index study recently published by The Economist’s intelligence unit, which includes four categories: electoral process and pluralism (10), government functioning (8.93), political participation (7.78), political culture (6.88) and civil liberties (9.71).

According to these data, Uruguay was one of the few nations that obtained a perfect score in its electoral process and pluralism.

Since the creation of the study, which has been carried out annually since 2006, the country has kept its score stable, never dropping below 8.

According to the London-based analysis group, Uruguay reached 14th place globally, and the only Latin American country that shares the category of “full democracy” is Costa Rica, which came 17th place in the overall ranking. Chile (25th) moved in 2023 from this group to the group of “deficient democracies,” which also includes Panama (48th), Brazil (51st), Argentina (54th), Colombia (55th), Dominican Republic (61st) and Paraguay (74th).

Norway, New Zealand, and Iceland top the index ranking. “Developed Western European countries dominate among the world’s ‘full democracies,’ accounting for 15 of the total 24 in 2023. Canada is the only ‘full democracy’ in North America, while the United States continues to languish as a ‘flawed democracy,’ a classification to which it was relegated in 2016. The Asia and Australasia region has five ‘full democracies,’ including three Asian ones (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) along with Australia and New Zealand,” the study says.

“Two Latin American countries are classified as ‘full democracies’ (Costa Rica and Uruguay), as is one African country (Mauritius). The predominance of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries among those classified as ‘full democracies’ suggests that the level of economic development may be a significant, if not binding, constraint on democratic development. Other factors that are important in determining the quality of democracy are a history of independent statehood and the quality of its state institutions,” it adds.

The British group indicated that, in general, democratic standards deteriorated in the world in 2023 due to wars, authoritarian measures, and loss of confidence in the main political parties.