The production of democracy indicators has in recent decades expanded and become a brand of knowledge industry especially for transnational organizations. The paper asks what kinds of audiences and relations of communication are involved in the production of democracy indicators, who is expected to make use of this knowledge and what kinds of power relations are enhanced or dissolved by this knowledge. Are the indicators produced for the government or the citizens, for national or transnational actors? What are the models of accountability implied in different conceptions of building democracy indicators?
Rhetorical analyses offer basic concepts for studying texts and communication in terms of their logic of argumentation, but also in terms of their built-in audience relations and positioning of the author in the texts. The paper attempts to make an analogous analysis on democracy indicators in relation to debates for developing democracy indicators for Finland.
