Conceptual Unity and Empirical Diversity: Rethinking the “Sciences of the Democracies” from a Polish Perspective Book Review: J.-P. Gagnon, B. Abrams et al. (Eds.). (2025). The Sciences of the Democracies, pp. 190. UCL Press.
Conceptual Unity and Empirical Diversity: Rethinking the “Sciences of the Democracies” from a Polish Perspective Book Review: J.-P. Gagnon, B. Abrams et al. (Eds.). (2025). The Sciences of the Democracies, pp. 190. UCL Press.

Summary/Abstract: Jean-Paul Gagnon and Benjamin Abrams’s The Sciences of the Democracies (UCL Press, 2025) proposes an unprecedented research program to document and analyze the manifestations of democracy across five knowledge sources: individuals, groups, nontextual media, texts, and non-human entities. Originating from ECPR debates, the project challenges parochialism in democracy studies while envisioning “Fourth Theorists” capable of synthesizing vast datasets using artificial intelligence. This review evaluates the project’s philosophical foundations, institutional proposals, and methodological complexities, examining tensions between descriptive pluralism and normative evaluation. Special attention is given to implications for Polish political science, where democratic backsliding (2015–2023) raises urgent questions about distinguishing authentic democratic diversity from authoritarian appropriation. The review argues that while Gagnon’s critique of Western hegemony is valuable, the project’s reluctance to establish normative criteria creates analytical relativism incompatible with critical scholarship. As an alternative, I propose theorizing democracy as a single concept with multiple empirical manifestations – “contextual universalism” – that preserves comparative analysis and normative judgment while recognizing legitimate diversity. The review concludes with practical recommendations for Polish scholars.

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