Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe

Citation:

Nalepa, Monika. 2010. Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe

Abstract:

After communist regimes in Eastern Europe fell after 1989, the pattern of “lustration,” of shedding light on the Communist past, took different forms in the early years of the new regimes. These arose from complex patterns of bargaining, but showed an unexpected willingness of former rulers to allow disclosure of the past. Monika Nalepa’s path-breaking book re-examines the process by which this took place through qualitative and quantitative means in nine East Central Europe countries. Skeletons in the Closet argues that secrets of past collaboration played a prominent role in stabilizing the transition to representative democracy and in the timing and content of subsequent transitional justice laws.