How to measure a crisis? Remarks on the problem of measurement in the science on democracy

In this paper we investigate the problem of a measurement of democracy’s backsliding through rankings. We indicate various theoretical and practical problems of measurement and conceptualisation of the phenomenon of democracy. We argue that democracy’s backsliding should be viewed as an opportunity to verify if rankings are an accurate method of measuring democracy. We are concerned particularly with the case of Poland, as the situation in that country in recent years has been universally described by experts and popular press as an example of the crisis of democracy. Having analysed popular democracy rankings (Democracy Index – The Economist Intelligence Unit, Global State of Democracy – International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Liberal Democracy Index – Varietes of Democracy Institute, Democracy Matrix – University of Würzburg), we argue that they produce the expected results – consistently indicating the deterioration of Polish democracy in the period of 2015–2023.