Roman David

How do transitional democracies deal with officials who have been tainted by complicity with prior governments? Should they be excluded or should they be incorporated into the new system? In Lustration and Transitional Justice, Roman David examines major institutional innovations that developed in Central Europe following the collapse of communist regimes. While the Czech Republic approved a lustration (vetting) law based on the traditional method of dismissals, Hungary and Poland devised alternative models that granted their tainted officials a second chance in exchange for truth. David classifies personnel systems as exclusive, inclusive, and reconciliatory; they are based on dismissal, exposure, and confession, respectively, and they represent three major classes of transitional justice. David argues that in addition to their immediate purposes, personnel systems carry symbolic meanings that help explain their origin and shape their effects. In their effort to purify public life, personnel systems send different ideological messages that affect trust in government and the social standing of former adversaries. Exclusive systems may establish trust at the expense of reconciliation, while inclusive and reconciliatory systems may promote both trust and reconciliation. In spite of its importance, the topic of inherited personnel has received only limited attention in research on transitional justice and democratization. Lustration and Transitional Justice is the first attempt to fill this gap. Combining insights from cultural sociology and political psychology with the analysis of original experiments, historical surveys, parliamentary debates, and interviews, the book shows how perceptions of tainted personnel affected the origin of lustration systems and how dismissal, exposure, and confession affected trust in government, reconciliation, and collective memory.

Personnel Systems in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland

Lustration and Transitional Justice

Ian Holliday

Historic Myanmar elections in 2015 and the installation of an NLD government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2016 contrast with ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in 2017. One critical question that now confronts the 50 million people of this Southeast Asian nation is whether the push for greater democracy is strong enough to prevail over a powerful military machine and undercurrents of intolerance. What are the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar? This bookaddresses this question by examining historical conditions, constitutionalism, democracy, major political actors, ethnic conflict, and transitional justice. It presents a rich array of evidence focusedon 88 in-depth interviews and three waves of surveys and experiments conducted in 2014-18. The analysis culminates in the concept of limited liberalism, which reflects a blend of liberal and illiberal attitudes. The book concludes that a weakening of liberal commitments among politicians and citizens alike, allied with spreading limited liberal attitudes, casts doubt on the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar.

Liberalism and Democracy in Myanmar

Did justice measures rectify the legacy of human rights abuses committed during the communist era in the Czech Republic? Roman David weighs this question carefully to promote a transformative theory of justice that demonstrates that justice measures, in order to be successful, require a degree of reconciliation.

Roman David

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