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The term "lustration" derives from the Latin for "purification." In the transitional justice literature, it refers to a means by which some countries deal with a legacy of human rights abuses: through the mass disqualification of those associated with the abuses under the prior regime. The practice acquired notoriety in post-Soviet Eastern Europe where most countries have adopted some form of lustration to exclude from public office for varying periods of time former communist party functionaries and those who collaborated with secret police forces. However, the practice described as lustration has occurred in other contexts from post-World War II purges in Europe to American-led de-Baathification after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Transitional circumstances often pose challenges of achieving some form of justice for past abuses. Because the human rights abuses under communism were often more systemic, rather than individual acts of brutality, undertaken by the vast state bureaucracies, significant portions of the population may be implicated. Through their association with the communist government, many individuals have been banned from public positions, whether elected or bureaucratic, for varying lengths of time depending on the country. The experience of the Czech Republic has been the most extreme, as its lustration laws were the most sweeping. Scholars have argued that different forms that lustration has taken in each country has been influenced by each state's history with communism and the nature of the transition[1], as well as the dynamics of post-communist politics.[2]
Benefits
Legitimacy is a key requirement for effective governance, and an important factor to consider when setting up new regimes and governmental structures. If the earlier regime was discredited, and especially if this was due, in part, to significant abuses of human rights, it is important that the new government not behave---or even appear to behave---in the same way as the old regime. Preventing members of the old, abusive regime from holding office in the new government is one way to at least appear to be changing policies. Removing those who operated the repressive state apparatus also provides a psychological break with the past and marks a new chapter in the nation's history.
Costs
Lustration is, however, a very blunt instrument of transitional justice. Some observe that while there is nothing wrong with this practice in principle, it has often been implemented in a sub-par fashion by entangling the innocent.[3] As a number of the Eastern Europeans cases illustrate, such a sweeping response has been prone to error, particularly as identification is usually done via records of the communist government, which may not be entirely accurate. Poland, for example, has experienced much mud-slinging and exploitation of secret police files for political gain. The contents of the secret police files were leaked before they were properly evaluated. Then, in the run-up to Poland's 2000 presidential election, Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski, both candidates, were accused of collaboration before being cleared by Poland's Vetting Court. In all countries, many records have been found to have been falsified or embellished by individual agents to advance their careers under communism. Some were listed as informants when they had no idea that those they were speaking with were agents of the government.
The moral dilemma that enters the picture is that many people implicated were essentially following the laws or orders from the communist regimes. They were told it was their duty to support the regime by informing on 'subversives.' Police arrests made under communism were often consistent with the criminal laws of the communist regimes. Teachers taught approved curriculum. Many professionals were required to be party members in order to practice. In some ways, then, the application of lustration for these acts is akin to ex post facto application of law. Another cost has been in terms of the loss of expertise. Bureaucratic expertise, scientific knowledge, and teaching skills have been lost at a time when they are sorely needed.
[1] Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).; Luc Huyse. 1995. "Justice after Transition: On the Choices Successor Elites Make in Dealing with the Past." Law & social inquiry 20(1).; John P. Morgan, "The Communist Torturers of Eastern Europe: Prosecute and Punish or Forgive and Forget?", Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 27 (1994), 95-109.; Helga A. Welsh, "Dealing with the Communist Past: Central and East European Experiences after 1990," Europe-Asia Studies, 48 (1996), 419-28.
[2] Kieran Williams, Aleks Szczerbiak, and Brigid Fowler. 2003. Explaining Lustration in Eastern Europe: 'A Post-communist politics approach' Sussex Europe Institute Working Paper No 62. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/SEI/pdfs/wp62.pdf. ; Helga A. Welsh, "Dealing with the Communist Past: Central and East European Experiences after 1990," Europe-Asia Studies, 48 (1996), 419-28.
[3] Stanley Cohen 1995. "State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past." Law & Social Inquiry 20(1): 7-50.
Use the following to cite this article:
Brahm, Eric. "Lustration." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: June 2004 <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/lustration/>.
Sources of Additional, In-depth Information on this Topic
Additional Explanations of the Underlying Concepts:
Online (Web) Sources
Williams, Kieran. A Scorecard for Czech Lustration.
Available at: http://www.ce-review.org/99/19/williams19.html.
The article provides an overview of the lustration process in the Czech Republic.
Rohozinska, Joanna. Struggling with the Past: Poland's controversial lustration trials.
Available at: http://www.ce-review.org/00/30/rohozinska30.html.
This article provides a status report of Poland's experience with lustration.
Offline (Print) Sources
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and et al. "Albania." In Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes Vol.II: Country Studies. Edited by Kritz, Neil J., ed. Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1995.
This chapter examines efforts to deal with the communist past through legal means in post-communist Albania.
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and et al. "Bulgaria." In Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes Vol.II: Country Studies. Edited by Kritz, Neil J., ed. Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1995.
The chapter is an examination of the transitional justice issues facing Bulgaria following the democratic transition.
Michnik, Adam and et al. "Czechoslovakia." In Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes Vol.II: Country Studies. Edited by Kritz, Neil J., ed. Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1995.
This chapter is a collection of resources examining how the country dealt with its communist legacy after the democratic transition.
Misztal, B. A. "How not to deal with the past: lustration in Poland." Archives Europeennes De Sociologie 40:1, 1999.
By looking at the history of the Polish lustration - the policy of checking the past of candidates for important positions - this article argues that although the lustration law has been finally passed at the end of 1998, Poland's dealing with the past is still full of unresolved and deeply ambivalent problems due to the nature of its postcommunist transition and the nature of the newly constructed political institutions. These conditions were shaped by the relative strength of the Polish anti-communist opposition, which credibility within the society permitted it to accept a compromise with the old regime. The undetermined character of many of Poland's political institutions have accelerated the use of the issue of retrospective justice in the partisan politics, which in turn has limited the opportunity for consensual policy, and therefore has reduced societal trust of the political parties, while at the same time increased the demand For the purification of the political system.
Pataki, Judith and et al. "Hungary." In Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes Vol.II: Country Studies. Edited by Kritz, Neil J., ed. Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1995.
This chapter is a collection of documents related to Hungary has dealt with its communist past.
McAdams, A. James. Judging the Past in Unified Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, January 1, 2001.
This is a critique of unified Germany's attempts to reconcile the crimes of the East German dictatorship of the past. The author analyzes four specific instances: criminal trials, disqualifications from public service, parliamentary truth-telling commissions, and private property restitution. Includes in-depth interviews with figures central to the change.
Scheppele, Kim Lane and Gabor Halmai. "Living Well is the Best Revenge: The Hungarian Approach to Judging the Past." In Transitional justice and the rule of law in new democracies. Edited by McAdams, A. James, ed. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.
The chapter describes Hungary's effort to deal with its communist past.
Morgan, John P. "The Communist Torturers of Eastern Europe: Prosecute or Punish or Forgive and Forget." Communist and Post Communist Studies 27:1, 1994.
Argues that the legacy of the past, the nature of communism, explains the different ways in which Eastern European countries have created lustration laws.
Walicki, Andrzej S. "Transitional Justice and the Political Struggles of Post-Communist Poland." In Transitional justice and the rule of law in new democracies. Edited by McAdams, A. James, ed. Notre Dame, IN: 185-238, 1997.
Examines how Poland has dealt with its communist past.
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Examples Illustrating this Topic:
Online (Web) Sources
Szczerbiak, Aleks, Brigid Fowler and Kieran Williams. Explaining Lustration in Eastern Europe: 'A Post-communist politics approach' SEI Working Paper No 62.
Available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sei/documents/wp62.pdf.
Lustration, the vetting of public officials in Eastern Europe for links to the Communist-era security services, has been pursued most systematically in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Prior attempts to explain the pursuit or avoidance of lustration focused on the differing experiences of Communist rule or transition to democracy. A closer examination finds that although the three countries in question had very different histories, there were identical demands for lustration in the early 1990s. These demands were translated into legislation at different times, and varied
considerably in the range of offices affected and the sanctions imposed. This article offers an explanation of this variation by focusing on the dynamics of post-Communist political competition. We find that the passage of a lustration bill depended on the ability of its most ardent advocates to persuade a heterogeneous plurality of legislators that the safeguarding of democracy required it.
Offline (Print) Sources
Boed, Roman. "An Evaluation of the Legality and Efficacy of Lustration as a Tool of Transitional Justice ." In Post-conflict justice. Edited by Bassiouni, M. Cherif, ed. Ardsley, N.Y.: Transnational Publishers, 2002.
This chapter provides an assessment of the utility of using lustration as a means for a country to deal with a legacy of human rights abuses.
Welsh, Helga A. "Dealing with the communist past: Central and East European experiences after 1990." Europe-Asia Studies 48:3, 1996.
In the article, "I will first outline major characteristics of decommunisation, concentrating on efforts to bring to justice former agents of the state security services and communist officials who have been charged with criminal activities. But the focus of this study is on the factors that have influenced the vigour (or lack of it) with which this issue has been pursued. Specifically, I propose that initially the history of political repression and the specifics of recent political transitions have been important influences upon why certain policies have been attempted in some countries but not in others. However, as time passed, differences in decommunisation have been diminished across the region. At the same time, its function as a tool in the struggle for political power has become more defined. The communist past has been exploited by some politicians to undermine the legitimacy of political opponents or to enhance their own."
Huyse, Luc. "Justice after Transition: On the Choices Successor Elites Make in Dealing with the Past." Law & social inquiry 20:1, 1995.
The author looks at one component of transitions to democracy: the strategies successor elites develop to deal with injustices committed by the previous, authoritarian regime. He compares post-transition justice in Belgium, France, and The Netherlands after WWII and in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. He discusses several factors that influence policy choices. Among the most influential are the legacy of the past regime (nature of the regime influences type of crimes that occurred), the international legal context at the time of the passage to democracy, and the mode of transition and its ensuing impact on the balance of power between the old and the new order.
Schwartz, Herman. "Lustration in Eastern Europe." Parker School of East European Law 1:2, 1994.
This article provides an overview of lustration efforts in Eastern Europe and suggests some ways to make the process more effective.
Tucker, Aviezer. "Paranoids may be persecuted: post-totalitarian retroactive justice." Archives Europeennes De Sociologie 40:1, 1999.
Retroactive justice against pertrators in post-totalitarian, as distinct of post-authoritarian, democracies is constrained by the absence of human resources for the rule of law and the weakness of civil society The limited application of lustration and other sanctions in postcommunist countries is understood in the context of politics of transition, political actors, motivations, constraints and beliefs. with special attention to the Czech Republic, the ineffectiveness of lustration is exemplified by the damage inflicted on post-communist societies by the nomenklatura and the former secret police.
Rosenberg, Tina. The haunted land: facing Europe's ghosts after communism. New York: Random House, 1995.
Here, she approaches a similar theme in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, telling a series of riveting human stories to illuminate the paradox that rabid anti-Communism at times resembles Communism. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and the former East Germany, she talks to erstwhile dissidents now victimized because they are named in old police registers; to low-level agents accused of crimes that were not crimes when committed; and to high officials who now run things just like before. She convincingly suggests that the best antidote to Communism may be, not revenge, but "tolerance and the rule of law." - Amazon.com
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