DOCSLIB.ORG

Disciplining Post-Communist Remembrance: from Politics of Memory to the Emergence of a Mnemonic Field

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Disciplining Post-Communist Remembrance: from Politics of Memory to the Emergence of a Mnemonic Field Zoltán Dujisin Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Zoltán Dujisin All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Disciplining Post-Communist Remembrance: from Politics of Memory to the Emergence of a Mnemonic Field Zoltán Dujisin I examine the origins of the anti-totalitarian collective memory pervading Central and Eastern Europe by tracking the genesis and development of the region’s ubiquitous and state-sponsored memory institutes. I deploy field analysis, prosopography and in-depth interviews to reveal how these hybrid institutes generate a potent anti-communist symbolic repertoire by overseeing alliances and exchanges across political, historiographic and Eurocratic fields. Memory institutes ensure this hegemony fundamentally via two mechanisms: The scientific validation of their activities by way of scholarly co-optation, and its regional legitimation through incursions into European arenas. I conclude that memory institutes are ultimately a key element of post- communist political competition, responsible for creating a durable symbolic advantage for the right’s conservative identity politics. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ vi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: TWO MODELS OF REGIONAL REMEMBRANCE ......................................... 48 CHAPTER 2: EUROPEANIZING POST-COMMUNIST MEMORY POLITICS ..................... 74 CHAPTER 3: FROM REGIME DIVIDE TO MEMORY CLEAVAGE ................................... 110 CHAPTER 4: HISTORIOGRAPHIC STRUGGLES UNDER ANTI-COMMUNIST NATIONAL RENEWAL ........................................................................................................... 154 CHAPTER 5: MEMORY ENTREPRENEURS, ARCHITECTS OF FIELD EMERGENCE .. 194 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 240 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 255 APPENDIX: Memory Institutes and Political Context for their Emergence ............................. 277 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Practices of Memory Institutes ...................................................................................... 97 Figure 2: Memory Regimes Compared....................................................................................... 109 Figure 3: Post-Communist Political Fields and Cleavages ......................................................... 141 Figure 4: Textbook aid developed by Romania's memory institute ........................................... 148 Figure 5: Ideal-typical Historiographic Field of Post-Communism ........................................... 184 Figure 6: Post-Communist Memory Regime .............................................................................. 224 Figure 7: Children plotting their escape across the Iron Curtain ................................................ 237 Figure 8: Emergence of the Mnemonic Field ............................................................................. 239 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When over four years ago I transferred from a Political Science department to Columbia Sociology, I was unaware of the depth of the abyss between the two disciplines. Transitioning was therefore unexpectedly arduous, but undoubtedly the right choice. Three years ago, speaking to my supervisor, I remember conveying to him that, for a text, lecture or debate to spark my sociological imagination, I still needed a bridge to the political world, to the realm of power in its crudest expression. This is no longer the case, and the first thing to acknowledge is my regret that this realization did not come sooner. I take this as a sign that I have not yet reached full scholarly maturity, but I find this realization comforting, a refreshing reminder that I retain some of the flexibility and eagerness to learn of my youthful university years in Lisbon. I begin by thanking those who renewed and redirected my intellectual curiosity well into my 30s. First of all, I thank my Columbia supervisor Gil Eyal. For everything he did directly - as a responsive, effective and insightful supervisor and an excellent Professor - but also indirectly. Anyone who reads this dissertation and knows his thinking will immediately recognize the immense debt I owe to his intellectual output. The last couple of years I had the chance to re-read much of his work and I keep surprising myself with the insights and connections it inspires. Never having truly developed a love (or hate) relationship with New York, Gil Eyal was also a big part of my decision to apply to Columbia. His work on post-communist elites resonated deeper than anything else I had read on the region during my time at CEU. I also wish to thank my Sorbonne co-supervisor, Antoine Vauchez, who immediately showed an excellent grasp of my topic and whose feedback was persistently helpful and accurate. Antoine iii also gave me the privilege of experiencing French academia during my semester in Paris, where thanks to him I could engage with a community of Bourdieuan scholars that significantly shaped my thinking. I am most grateful to Andras Bozoki, my first supervisor and now my external. By endorsing my application to CEU, Andras gave me the chance to become a scholar and I would not be here without his unconditional support and closeness over the years. The other members of my committee have also played an important role in this thesis. I am deeply grateful to Shamus Khan for behaving like a supervisor from day one, and I am glad he eventually joined the committee. His feedback was always honest and poignant, our conversations immensely productive, and whenever I asked for help I found a kind and responsive scholar. I also wish to thank David Stark for the most challenging but ultimately rewarding teaching experience, whereby I expanded my sociological curiosity to areas previously unimaginable to me. Moreover, his straight-forward feedback regarding the framing of my topic served as an important wake-up call. This thesis could not have been written without the support, inspiration and encouragement of many other Professors and scholars that I encountered during the years. In this regard, I wish to express my recognition to Anil Duman, Bela Greskovits, Don Kalb, Dorothee Bohle, Josh Whitford, Karen Barkey, Lea Sgier, Michael Miller, Michal Kopeček, Peter Apor, Sheri Berman, Xymena Kurowska, and Zsolt Enyedi, all of whom contributed in one way or another to finalizing this journey. I am indebted to the Harriman Institute for the reiterated financial support to my research and scholarly development, and for the countless thought-provoking conferences, events and discussions on Central and Eastern Europe. I also wish to acknowledge Alliance for awarding me its Doctoral Mobility Grant, which allowed for a wonderful and productive stay in Paris. During iv this time, the enlightening conversations with scholars such as Didier Georgakakis, Jay Rowell, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Giselle Sapiro, Nadège Ragaru and Sylvain Laurens, helped me settle the theoretical framework that guides this dissertation. In this particularly delicate moment for its existence, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to Central European University for the formation and support it gave me. The gathering of empirical data for this study was made possible by the kindness, openness and availability of my informants and friends all over the region. I am therefore indebted to Anca Mihalache, Andreja Valič Zver, Andrei Muraru, Bert Rosenthal, Bogdan Iacob, Carlos Closa Montero, Claudia Ciobanu, Darius Staliūnas, Dominik Pick, Dovid Katz, Ferenc Laczó, Florin Abraham, Florin Poenaru, Francis Robichaud, Hans Altendorf, Irena Šumi, Irina Costache, Ivars Ījabs, Justinas Dementavičius, Kaja Širok, Karsten Brüggemann, Katalin Varga, Krzysztof Persak, Lenka Kukurova, Leon Kieres, Luka Lisjak, Łukasz Michalski, Maciej Górny, Marek Tamm, Mária Schmidt, Matěj Spurný, Matevž Tomšič, Michal Pullmann, Neela Winkelmann, Pavel Žáček, Paweł Machcewicz, Piotr Trzaskowski, Piotr Wciślik, Rachel Kostanian, Raluca Grosescu, Ronaldas Račinskas, Ruta Pazdere, Teresė Burauskaitė, Theodor Mittrup, Toomas Hiio, Valters Nollendorfs, Ulrich Mählert and Uku Lember. I am beholden to my dear friends and colleagues who proof-read and provided feedback, often on short notice, in this difficult last stretch of dissertation writing. A heartfelt thank you to Elena Stavrevska, Elizabeth Schober, Ian Cook, Joanna Kostka, Kyle Stanton, Olga Loblova, Oriane Calligaro and Paul Weith. While I can't mention them all, I also wish to thank all my friends from Lisbon, Budapest, Prague and New York who in some way or another helped me through the years of doctoral studies. Even my oldest friends who, by constantly reminding me I’m "still a student" with creative and
Recommended publications
  • Shades of Red, Shades of Grey

    Shades of Red, Shades of Grey

    Proteau, Jasmine Shades of Red, Shades of Grey Shades of Red, Shades of Grey The Role of Cultural Context in Shaping Museums of Communism Jasmine Proteau Abstract In the post-communist era, Eastern-European museums face three key issues in their attempts to inter- pret the history of daily life under communism: feelings of nostalgia, representing both individual and collective histories, and ‘purposeful forgetting’. As socialism was experienced differently in each regional context, a sin- gle country or museum does not give a full comparative analysis to examine these issues. This work focuses on comparing three institutions across Eastern-Europe: the Museum of Communism in Prague, the GDR Museum in Berlin, and the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest. Two central questions guided the approach of this work: how have these museums, and the countries they represent, portrayed, memorialized – or rejected – socialism in past and how do their approaches connect or diverge? Though all are faced with complex interpretive issues, each museumEastern Europe? is unique More in its specifically, approach. what issues have these museums faced in preserving a controversial and raw Keywords nostalgia, communism, museums, memory, culture Museums, as cultural institutions, are at the munist era, Eastern-European museums face three key - issues in their attempts to interpret the history of daily ty. Seeking to re-establish themselves as credible sourc- life under communism: feelings of nostalgia, presenting esforefront of culture, of redefining intellectual post-communist debate, and criticalnational analysis identi both individual and collective histories, and something of the past, their interpretation of this crucial moment I have chosen to call ‘purposeful forgetting’.
  • Wolfgang Thierse – Günter Nooke – Florian Mausbach – Günter Jeschonnek

    Wolfgang Thierse – Günter Nooke – Florian Mausbach – Günter Jeschonnek

    Wolfgang Thierse – Günter Nooke – Florian Mausbach – Günter Jeschonnek Berlin, im November 2016 An die Mitglieder des Kultur- und Medienausschusses des Deutschen Bundestags Mitglieder des Haushaltsausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages Sehr geehrter Herr/Frau N.N., der Deutsche Bundestag hat am 9. November 2007 beschlossen, ein Freiheits- und Einheitsdenkmal zu errichten und entschied 2008 in einem weiteren Beschluss die Schlossfreiheit als seinen Standort. Es soll an die friedliche Revolution von 1989 und die Wiedergewinnung der staatlichen Einheit erinnern. 2011 ging aus zwei internationalen Wettbewerben mit 920 Einreichungen der Entwurf „Bürger in Bewegung“ als Sieger hervor. Überraschend hatte der Haushaltsausschuss am 13. April 2016 die Bundesregierung aufgefordert, das mittlerweile TÜV-zertifizierte und baureife Freiheits- und Einheitsdenkmals an historischer Stelle vor dem Berliner Schloss „nicht weiter zu verfolgen“. Begründet hat er diesen in nicht öffentlicher Sitzung gefassten Beschluss mit einer angeblichen „Kostenexplosion“. Diese Entscheidung kam ohne vorherige öffentliche Diskussion zustande: Weder wirkte der dafür fachlich zuständige Kulturausschuss mit, noch hatte sich das Plenum des Deutschen Bundestages damit erneut befasst. Nach öffentlichen Interventionen von verschiedener Seite stellte Bundestagspräsident Lammert am 29. September 2016 im Ältestenrat fest, dass der Beschluss eines Ausschusses keinen Plenarbeschluss aufheben kann und hat die Fraktionen aufgefordert, sich Gedanken über das weitere Vorgehen zu machen.
  • Interview with Rainer Eppelmann (MP/CDU), Chairman of the Enquete

    Interview with Rainer Eppelmann (MP/CDU), Chairman of the Enquete

    Volume 10. One Germany in Europe, 1989 – 2009 Rainer Eppelmann talks about the Enquete Commission on the SED Dictatorship (May 3, 1992) In an interview with the national news radio station Deutschlandfunk, the chairman of the Enquete Commission, former East German dissident Rainer Eppelmann, discusses the challenge of engaging in a public discussion of the history of the East German dictatorship. He also addresses the ambivalent role of the Protestant church and the importance of maintaining open access to Stasi files. Interview with Rainer Eppelmann (Bundestag Member/CDU), Chairman of the Enquete Commission for the “Reappraisal of the History and Consequenes of the SED Dictatorship” Deutschlandfunk: Mr. Eppelmann, forgive and forget are not the worst Christian virtues. You are now heading the Enquete Commission of the Bundestag on the reappraisal of the SED dictatorship? Don‟t people have other, very different worries? Eppelmann: People do have other worries. But the question “What was going on during these last forty years, especially with this [Ministry of] State Security?” has been filling the first, second, and third pages of all the newspapers since the beginning of this year. There‟s hardly a newscast, hardly a television broadcast on current issues in Germany without a news item on this topic. That‟s to say, the question of what really happened there, what kind of pressure was exerted on me by this State Security, either directly or through the school, the workplace, the sports club, the cultural association, or the writers‟ association – that‟s a question that preoccupies many people in East Germany. Fortunately not all of them.
  • Fighting Corruption with Con Tricks: Romania's Assault On

    Fighting Corruption with Con Tricks: Romania's Assault On

    FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITH CON TRICKS: ROMANIA’S ASSAULT ON THE RULE OF LAW David Clark FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITH CON TRICKS FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITH CON TRICKS: ROMANIA’S ASSAULT ON THE RULE OF LAW 2 FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITH CON TRICKS Executive Summary Democracy in Europe is facing its greatest challenge since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The threat comes not only from the rise of political movements that openly reject liberal democratic values, including the governing parties of Hungary and Poland, but also from the risk of creeping authoritarianism caused by a gradual decline in standards of governance and the weakening of important democratic underpinnings, such as the rule of law. Romania is a country of particular concern. Although it has earned international praise for its recent efforts to stamp out corruption, a detailed examination of Romania’s anti-corruption activities shows that they often provide convenient cover for acts of political score settling and serious human rights violations. The methods used show a considerable degree of continuity with the practices and attitudes of the communist era. The strong correlation between those targeted for prosecution and the interests of those in power is indicative of politicised justice. Cases have often been accompanied by campaigns of public vilification designed to maximise their political impact. Far from being above politics, Romania’s National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) is an active participant in its partisan struggles. Although the rule of law requires the justice system to work independently of government, there is clear evidence of collusion between prosecutors and the executive in Romania.
  • Germany, International Justice and the 20Th Century

    Germany, International Justice and the 20Th Century

    Paul Betts Dept .of History University of Sussex NOT TO BE QUOTED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR: DRAFT VERSION: THE FINAL DRAFT OF THIS ESSAY WILL APPEAR IN A SPECIAL ISSUE OF HISTORY AND MEMORY IN APRIL, 2005, ED. ALON CONFINO Germany, International Justice and the 20th Century The turning of the millennium has predictably spurred fresh interest in reinterpreting the 20th century as a whole. Recent years have witnessed a bountiful crop of academic surveys, mass market picture books and television programs devoted to recalling the deeds and misdeeds of the last one hundred years. It then comes as no surprise that Germany often figures prominently in these new accounts. If nothing else, its responsibility for World War I, World War II and the Holocaust assures its villainous presence in most every retrospective on offer. That Germany alone experienced all of the modern forms of government in one compressed century – from constitutional monarchy, democratic socialism, fascism, Western liberalism to Soviet-style communism -- has also made it a favorite object lesson about the so-called Age of Extremes. Moreover, the enduring international influence of Weimar culture, feminism and the women’s movement, social democracy, post-1945 economic recovery, West German liberalism, environmental politics and most recently pacifism have also occasioned serious reconsideration of the contemporary relevance of the 20th century German past. Little wonder that several commentators have gone so far as to christen the “short twentieth century” between 1914 and 1989 as really the “German century,” to the extent that German history is commonly held as emblematic of Europe’s 20th century more generally.1 Acknowledging Germany’s central role in 20th century life has hardly made things easy for historians, however.
  • What Do Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust? Evidence from English Secondary Schools

    What Do Students Know and Understand About the Holocaust? Evidence from English Secondary Schools

    CENTRE FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools Stuart Foster, Alice Pettigrew, Andy Pearce, Rebecca Hale Centre for Holocaust Education Centre Adrian Burgess, Paul Salmons, Ruth-Anne Lenga Centre for Holocaust Education What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools Cover image: Photo by Olivia Hemingway, 2014 What do students know and understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English secondary schools Stuart Foster Alice Pettigrew Andy Pearce Rebecca Hale Adrian Burgess Paul Salmons Ruth-Anne Lenga ISBN: 978-0-9933711-0-3 [email protected] British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record is available from the British Library All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permissions of the publisher. iii Contents About the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education iv Acknowledgements and authorship iv Glossary v Foreword by Sir Peter Bazalgette vi Foreword by Professor Yehuda Bauer viii Executive summary 1 Part I Introductions 5 1. Introduction 7 2. Methodology 23 Part II Conceptions and encounters 35 3. Collective conceptions of the Holocaust 37 4. Encountering representations of the Holocaust in classrooms and beyond 71 Part III Historical knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust 99 Preface 101 5. Who were the victims? 105 6.
  • Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited Computer Assiste

    Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited Computer Assiste

    EU Grant Agreement number: 290529 Project acronym: ANTICORRP Project title: Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited Work Package: WP 6 Media and corruption Title of deliverable: D 6.1 Extensive content analysis study on the coverage of stories on corruption Computer Assisted Content Analysis of the print press coverage of corruption In Romania Due date of deliverable: 30 June, 2016 Actual submission date: 30 June, 2016 Authors: Natalia Milewski , Valentina Dimulescu (SAR) Organization name of lead beneficiary for this deliverable: UNIPG, UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PERUGIA Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme Dissemination level PU Public X PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services) RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) Co Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services) The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) only and do not reflect any collective opinion of the ANTICORRP consortium, nor do they reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the European Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. 1 CONTENTS 1. The Analysed Media p. 3 2. Most used keywords p.4 3. Most frequent words p.5 4. Word associations p. 13 5. Evolution over time p. 25 6. Differences among the observed newspapers p. 29 7. Remarks on the influence that the political, judicial and socio-cultural systems have on p. 33 the manner in which corruption is portrayed in Romanian media 8.
  • “Attempts at Decommunization in Russia Upset De-Stalinization”

    “Attempts at Decommunization in Russia Upset De-Stalinization”

    “Attempts at Decommunization in Russia Upset de-Stalinization” May 5, 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth. Whatever the attitude towards this philosopher, nobody denies that his heritage largely shaped the 20th century and that today’s demand for Marxist-related ideas is much above supply. What has happened to left- wing and Communist ideas following the collapse of the Soviet Union and how does decommunization influence societies? Russia in Global Affairs editor Alexander Solovyov discusses these and other related topics with Sergei Solovyov, editor-in-chief of Skepsis magazine. – What made Eastern Europe and some post-Soviet republics launch decommunization? – firstly, it is the ideological embodiment of what in eastern europe is commonly called “regime change.” a key element of a newly- invented myth of the fundamental break with the so-called Communist past, which is a clue to the legitimation of the new elite. This policy, as far as I can judge, is enforced more radically the stronger the real ties are between the elite’s nomenklatura and the previous political regime. a clear example of this is hungary, where the technocratic mid-level career functionaries began to insist (as soon as they laid hands on the previous regime’s property) on the most resolute ideological break with the country’s past. on this soil hungarian nationalism soared and Jobbik—the movement for a Better hungary party—emerged in the limelight … I should say that in hungary today we have what I would Sergei M. Solovyov is an Associate Professor in the Social Psychology Department at the Mos- cow State Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy.
  • Bulgaria's Perpetual Stagnation Due to Its Negative National Narrative

    Bulgaria's Perpetual Stagnation Due to Its Negative National Narrative

    Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2021 Maledictum Bulgaricus: Bulgaria’s Perpetual Stagnation Due to its Negative National Narrative and Political Nostalgia Yoana Sidzhimova Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Sidzhimova, Yoana, "Maledictum Bulgaricus: Bulgaria’s Perpetual Stagnation Due to its Negative National Narrative and Political Nostalgia" (2021). CMC Senior Theses. 2645. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2645 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Claremont McKenna College Maledictum Bulgaricus: Bulgaria’s Perpetual Stagnation Due to its Negative National Narrative and Political Nostalgia submitted to Professor Zachary Courser by Yoana Nikolaeva Sidzhimova for Senior Thesis Full Year Thesis 2020 – 2021 May 3, 2021 1 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank Professor Courser for his guidance throughout my entire journey at CMC. From sitting in his office for our first ever advisor meeting freshman year, having the pleasure to learn and work alongside him in CMC’s Policy Lab, and, finally, completing my thesis with his guidance, my experience at CMC would not have been the same without him there. Thank you for always pushing me and helping me understand the value in a ‘Big Think,’ having my best interests as a both a student and individual at heart, and, most importantly, reminding me the value in slowing down and taking a breather. I have learned so much from you in the past four years.
  • Collective Memory from a Psychological Perspective

    Collective Memory from a Psychological Perspective

    Int J Polit Cult Soc (2009) 22:125–141 DOI 10.1007/s10767-009-9057-9 Collective Memory from a Psychological Perspective Alin Coman & Adam D. Brown & Jonathan Koppel & William Hirst Published online: 26 May 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract The study of collective memory has burgeoned in the last 20 years, so much so that one can even detect a growing resistance to what some view as the imperialistic march of memory studies across the social sciences (e.g., Berliner 2005;Fabian1999). Yet despite its clear advance, one area that has remained on the sidelines is psychology. On the one hand, this disinterest is surprising, since memory is of central concern to psychologists. On the other hand, the relative absence of the study of collective memory within the discipline of psychology seems to suit both psychology and other disciplines of the social sciences, for reasons that will be made clear. This paper explores how psychology might step from the sidelines and contribute meaningfully to discussions of collective memory. It reviews aspects of the small literature on the psychology of collective memoryandconnectsthisworktothelargerscholarly community’sinterestincollectivememory. Keywords Social contagion . Memory restructuring . Collective memory . Collective forgetting General Comments Contextualizing the Study of Collective Memory Why not has psychology figured prominently in discussions of collective memory? For those in social science fields other than psychology, the methodological individualism of The first three authors contributed equally to this paper. The order in which they are listed reflects the throw of a die. A. Coman : J. Koppel : W. Hirst (*) The New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10011, USA e-mail: [email protected] A.
  • Lustration Laws in Action: the Motives and Evaluation of Lustration Policy in the Czech Republic and Poland ( 1989-200 1 ) Roman David

    Lustration Laws in Action: the Motives and Evaluation of Lustration Policy in the Czech Republic and Poland ( 1989-200 1 ) Roman David

    Lustration Laws in Action: The Motives and Evaluation of Lustration Policy in the Czech Republic and Poland ( 1989-200 1 ) Roman David Lustration laws, which discharge the influence of old power structures upon entering democracies, are considered the most controversial measure of transitional justice. This article suggests that initial examinations of lustrations have often overlooked the tremendous challenges faced by new democracies. It identifies the motives behind the approval of two distinctive lustration laws in the Czech Republic and Poland, examines their capacity to meet their objectives, and determines the factors that influence their perfor- mance. The comparison of the Czech semi-renibutive model with the Polish semi-reconciliatory model suggests the relative success of the fonner within a few years following its approval. It concludes that a certain lustration model might be significant for democratic consolidation in other transitional coun- tries. The Czech word lustrace and the Polish lustrucju have enlivened the forgotten English term lustration,’ which is derived from the Latin term lus- Roman David is a postdoctoral fellow at the law school of the University of the Witwa- tersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa ([email protected]; [email protected]). The original version of the paper was presented at “Law in Action,” the joint annual meeting of the Law and Society Association and the Research Committee on the Sociology of Law, Budapest, 4-7 July 2001. The author thanks the University for providing support in writing this paper; the Research Support Scheme, Prague (grant no. 1636/245/1998), for financing the fieldwork; Jeny Oniszczuk from the Polish Constitutional Tribunal for relevant legal mate- rials; and Christopher Roederer for his comments on the original version of the paper.
  • The Political Context of Eu Accession in Hungary

    The Political Context of Eu Accession in Hungary

    European Programme November 2002 THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EU ACCESSION IN HUNGARY Agnes Batory Introduction For the second time since the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty – seen by many as a watershed in the history of European integration – the European Union (EU) is set to expand. Unlike in 1995, when the group joining the Union consisted of wealthy, established liberal democracies, ten of the current applicants are post-communist countries which recently completed, or are still in various stages of completing, democratic transitions and large-scale economic reconstruction. It is envisaged that the candidates furthest ahead will become members in time for their citizens to participate in the next elections to the European Parliament due in June 2004. The challenge the absorption of the central and east European countries represents for the Union has triggered a need for internal institutional reform and new thinking among the policy-makers of the existing member states. However, despite the imminence of the ‘changeover’ to a considerably larger and more heterogeneous Union, the domestic profiles of the accession countries have remained relatively little known from the west European perspective. In particular, the implications of enlargement in terms of the attitudes and preferences of the new (or soon to be) players are still, to a great extent, unclear. How will they view their rights and obligations as EU members? How committed will they be to the implementation of the acquis communautaire? In what way will they fill formal rules with practical content? BRIEFING PAPER 2 THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EU ACCESSION IN HUNGARY Naturally, the answers to these questions can only government under the premiership of Miklós Németh be tentative at this stage.