Putting out the Fire, Or Fanning the Flames?
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Putting out the Fire, or Fanning the Flames? How Regulating Secret Service Files and Personnel Affects Contestation over the Communist Past. Vincent Post Department of Political Science McGill University, Montreal October 2015 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. © Vincent Post, 2015 Table of Contents Table of Contents ...................................................................................... i Abstract ................................................................................................... iv Résumé ...................................................................................................... v List of Tables and Figures ..................................................................... vi Acknowledgements .............................................................................. viii CHAPTER ONE – Policy Entrepreneurs and Political Contestation. A Theory of Transitional Justice Effects ...................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Impact of Transitional Justice: A Review of the Literature .......................................... 4 Transitional Justice Defined ................................................................................................... 4 Transitional Justice Effects ..................................................................................................... 9 Transitional Justice as a Tool for Democratizers .................................................................. 10 Transitional Justice as a Tool in Political Competition ........................................................ 16 1.2 Policy Entrepreneurs ........................................................................................................... 22 1.3 Paths to Contestation: The Impact of Ideology................................................................... 26 1.4 Hypotheses and Methodology............................................................................................. 30 Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................ 30 Case Selection ....................................................................................................................... 31 Data Collection ..................................................................................................................... 32 1.5 Plan of the Dissertation ....................................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER TWO – Salience of the Communist Past in Czech and Slovak Newspaper Coverage, 1990-2012 ........................................................... 39 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 39 2.1 Data Collection ................................................................................................................... 39 2.2 Salience over Time ............................................................................................................. 46 2.3 Multivariate Analysis .......................................................................................................... 49 2.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER THREE – Czechoslovakia, a Tale of Two Countries? ........... 62 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 62 i TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.1 Communism in Czechoslovakia ......................................................................................... 63 3.2 Post-Communist Czechoslovakia ....................................................................................... 70 After the June, 1990 Elections .............................................................................................. 75 Lustration Law ...................................................................................................................... 78 3.3 Analytical Perspective ........................................................................................................ 83 Political Context.................................................................................................................... 83 Political Actors...................................................................................................................... 84 The Law and its Impact......................................................................................................... 87 Further implications .............................................................................................................. 88 3.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 90 CHAPTER FOUR – The Czech Republic, a Puppy Chasing its Tail? ...... 93 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 93 4.1 Transitional Justice in the Czech Republic ......................................................................... 96 Partisan Perspective: Legislative Behavior ......................................................................... 101 Partisan Perspective: Voters ............................................................................................... 104 Partisan Perspective: The Laws Themselves ...................................................................... 107 4.2 Policy Entrepreneurs and Czech Transitional Justice ....................................................... 109 Anti-communism ................................................................................................................ 112 Further Examples ................................................................................................................ 115 Transitional Justice Laws: The Spirit over the Letter ......................................................... 117 4.3 Transitional Justice Impact: Contestation about Ideology ................................................ 126 Direct Impact ...................................................................................................................... 126 Indirect Impact: Memory Institutes .................................................................................... 131 Indirect Impact: StB File Access ........................................................................................ 135 4.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 140 CHAPTER FIVE – Slovakia: No Saints, No Sinners ............................. 144 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 144 5.1 Context .............................................................................................................................. 146 5.2 The Man and His Law: Ján Langoš and the 2002 ‘Law on National Memory’ ............... 155 Ideology in the Law on National Memory (2002) .............................................................. 164 5.3 Political Contestation over Slovakian Transitional Justice ............................................... 167 Contestation over Ideology ................................................................................................. 167 ÚPN as a Source for Contestation ...................................................................................... 170 File Access as a Source for Contestation ............................................................................ 172 5.4 Conclusion: Slovaks and the Communist Past.................................................................. 179 CHAPTER SIX – Discussion and Conclusion ........................................ 181 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 181 6.1 Testing Hypotheses ........................................................................................................... 182 Two Republics Compared................................................................................................... 186 6.2 Beyond Slovakia and the Czech Republic ........................................................................ 189 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Ukraine ................................................................................................................................ 189 Romania .............................................................................................................................. 191 6.3 Political Implications of Increased Contestation .............................................................. 193 6.4 Towards a Theory of Transitional Justice Effects ............................................................ 196 6.5 In Closing: On the Grammar of Slavic Verbs ................................................................... 198 Appendices ........................................................................................... 201 Appendix