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Transitional Justice and Changing Memories of the Past in Central Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Roman David
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Abstract

Memories of wrongdoings are often viewed as an obstacle to reconciliation in divided societies. Is it due to the past or the present politics of the past? To examine the dilemma of essentialism versus presentism, this article investigates the impact of transitional justice on memories of wrongdoing. It theorizes that using different transitional justice strategies to deal with the same wrongdoing shapes memories in different ways. The theory is tested via vignette-based surveys in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, which adopted distinct lustration laws. The results show that wrongdoing is viewed through lustration laws, reflecting present power constellations, not history.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 24 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013.

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Footnotes

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Roman David is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Contact email: [email protected].

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