2016 Global Democracy Index: US joins Jamaica on 'flawed' list
Published:Saturday | January 28, 2017 | 12:00 AM
The 2016 Global Democracy Index has maintained Jamaica's status as a flawed democracy.
However, Jamaica has now been joined by the United States which, for the first time in its history, has been downgraded from a full democracy to a flawed regime in the latest survey.
The Democracy Index is compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit based in the United Kingdom and measures the state of democracy in 167 countries across the Globe.
It grades countries on a scale of zero to 10 using 60 indicators across five different categories to classify them as full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes or authoritarian regimes.
Jamaica scored a 7.39 average to be among the 56 countries labelled as flawed democracies.
Norway topped the 20 countries labelled as full democracies, scoring 9.93 points while North Korea was the worst with a score of 1.08 points.
According to the index, flawed democracies are nations that hold fair and free elections and basic civil liberties are respected but have significant faults in areas such as underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.