DEMOCRACYS.ORG / COUNTRY BRIEF
Chile
Institutions and political conditions · 2025
#25of 179 places
+0.3points since 2015
76.6–86.0source-bound score area*
What the score says
Chile scores 80.8 on the Democracys Standard. Its score was 80.5 in 2015, a rise of 0.3 points. The lowest-scoring dimension in 2025 is public participation (61.9).
What drove the change?
The score for Chile rose 0.3 points, from 80.5 to 80.8 between 2015 and 2025. 3 of the five areas improved while 2 worsened, so the headline combines competing movements. Elections contributed the largest downward push in the score calculation.
This explains movement within the formula, not the causal effect of political events.
2024 context · Freedom House assessment
Police accountability showed progress after the 2019 protests
Authorities took further steps toward security-sector reform and accountability for police violence during the 2019 demonstrations. Freedom House also cautions that excessive-force concerns persisted. The relevant institutional change is stronger scrutiny of coercive state power, not a claim that all policing problems were resolved.
Read the country report · Freedom in the World 2025AI-assisted source summary · not independently expert-reviewed
What this context does—and does not—explain
This is a selected development, not a complete political history. Its date may differ from the selected comparison period. It is not evidence that one event caused a particular number of points, and it may describe progress even when this index declines.
The scores use V-Dem. The narrative summarizes a separate assessment by Freedom House, whose definitions and coverage differ. Neither organization endorses this website. The summary is AI-assisted, source-linked, and has not received independent country-expert review. Source checked October 5, 2026.
Why democracy measures can disagree →Look beneath the headline
| Democracy test | 2025 | Since 2015 |
|---|---|---|
| Free and fair elections | 83.9 | −4.7 |
| Rights and checks on power | 94.6 | −1.1 |
| Public participation | 61.9 | +3.5 |
| Public reasoning | 93.4 | +0.4 |
| Political equality | 72.7 | +2.6 |
Dimension movements are not additive contributions to the overall score. The method also accounts for weak areas.
Three questions worth investigating
- Can people shape public life through civic groups, direct voting, and meaningful local and regional government?
- Which documented changes in laws, institutions, or their implementation occurred during the period?
- What evidence challenges your explanation, and whose experience is missing?
Use primary records and country expertise. A change in an estimate alone does not identify its cause.
Read with care
This is an independent educational beta, not a V-Dem endorsement. Scores are not percentages of democracy or judgments about a people. Small differences may be within uncertainty. *The score area is obtained from source bounds; it is not a formal confidence interval for this composite or its change.