Jamaica continues to rank as the top country in the Caribbean for electoral democracy, maintaining a 0.8 score on the 2025 Electoral Democracy Index.

The Index is calculated based on the indicators of freedom of association, clean elections, freedom of expression, elected authorities, and suffrage.

It is one of several dimensions explored in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Report on Democracy and Development 2026, which was officially released on Monday (May 11).

The report is titled ‘Democracies Under Pressure: Reimagining the futures of democracy and development in Latin America and the Caribbean’.

Jamaica’s ranking in the 2026 report positions the island as a regional leader in institutional stability despite wider regional trends of democratic “backsliding”.

The report notes that Jamaica has maintained consistently high electoral democracy index levels since the 1990s (around 0.75-0.82), above the regional average.

It says 53 per cent of Jamaicans also consider democracy to be the best system of government, despite some citizens not being satisfied with its functioning.

The report also examines citizen participation as a fundamental dimension of democracy, noting that it grants individuals the capacity to influence decisions that affect their lives.

“In Jamaica, organisations such as National Integrity Action (NIA) and Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) monitor government actions in awarding contracts and other public expenditures for possible conflicts of interest or corrupt practices,” it outlines.

On the matter of digital connectivity, the report highlights Jamaica at 79 on the Global Innovation Index as the second ranked Caribbean country.

The report notes that Jamaica’s success in achieving sustained reductions in its public debt and debt-to-GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio stands as a practical example of the intersection between fiscal policy and democratic governance.

It says, “In 2012, Jamaica’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 144 per cent, and by 2023 had fallen to 72 per cent. This reduction was achieved despite the relatively slow growth of the Jamaican economy over the same period. The country also managed to maintain this reduction despite experiencing natural disasters and the pandemic.”

The UNDP notes, further, that this success has been largely attributed to the fiscal governance frameworks that Jamaica adopted, mainly through agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It says the Fiscal Responsibility Framework, adopted by Jamaica in 2010, committed the country to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 100 per cent by 2016.

Among other measures, this meant that the Government would have to maintain public-sector wages at nine per cent of GDP.

“The Framework included built-in flexibility, allowing the Government to modify its terms, with parliamentary approval, in the event of unforeseen circumstances such as a national disaster. Importantly, there was independent oversight of the mechanism to hold governments accountable and promote transparency and coherence,” the report details.

Meanwhile, the report notes that Latin America and the Caribbean is the most democratic developing region and the third most democratic worldwide, with more than four out of five citizens living in governments elected through electoral processes.

It, however, acknowledges that this strength coexists with growing tension, as the region’s democracies are facing pressures such as deficits in quality and performance.

Regional Director of UNDP for Latin America and the Caribbean, Michelle Muschett, notes that some of these pressures may derive from increasingly high expectations from citizens.

She says the pressures should be transformed into momentum to reach renewed agreements on a shared vision for development in the region.