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.
