There is nothing new in the crisis of democracy, but the discussion has been amplified by recent developments around the world. These changes have also affected some of the stable western democracies, an issue that can be witnessed – perhaps in its most unsettling form – in the rating of the United States of America as a Flawed Democracy in the 2016 EIU’s Democracy Index. However, this paper focuses on the concept of illiberal democracy, which in our analysis can become an umbrella for identification of less democratic states, which form a problematic grey zone between full democracy and dictatorship. Also, the legitimizing role of democracy in noteworthy, the procedures of democracy have been adopted almost universally, even if the essence of democracy – separation of powers, rule of law and most importantly civil liberties – is not. After all, democracy per se does not mean good governance. The analysis of both democracy and illiberalism will be performed with the help provided by the various “political credit ratings”, such as the Democracy Index, or Freedom House’s Freedom of the World Report. However, although in Democracy Index’s reports the criteria have been the same since 2006, when they launched their comparisons, there is also the important question about ranking and politics of classification to consider in this matter. In addition to theoretical approach, the emphasis is on recent discussion concerning Hungary and Poland.
