Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:18:24.039Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Transitional Justice Improve the Quality of Representation in New Democracies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Milena Ang  and
Monika Nalepa
Milena Ang
Affiliation:
University of Chicagomilenaang@uchicago.edu
Monika Nalepa
Affiliation:
University of Chicagomnalepa@uchicago.edu
Get access

Abstract

Can transitional justice enhance democratic representation in countries recovering from authoritarian rule? The authors argue that lustration, a policy that reveals secret collaboration with the authoritarian regime, can prevent former authoritarian elites from extorting policy concessions from past collaborators who have been elected as politicians in the new regime. Absent lustration, former elites can threaten to reveal information about past collaboration unless the politicians implement policies these elites desire. In this way, lustration policies enable politicians to avoid blackmail and to be responsive to their constituents, improving the quality of representation. The authors show that whether lustration enhances representation depends on its severity and the extent to which dissidents-turned-politicians would suffer if the skeletons in their closets were revealed. The authors also find that the potential to blackmail politicians increases as the ideological distance between authoritarian elites and politicians decreases. They test this theory with original data from the Global Transitional Justice Dataset, which spans eighty-four countries that transitioned to democracy since 1946.

Keywords

blackmailGlobal Transitional Justice Datasetquality of representationtransitional justice
Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 631 - 666
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albertus, Michael, and Menaldo, Victor. 2014. “The Political Economy of Autocratic Constitutions.” In Ginsburg, Tom and Simpser, Alberto, eds. Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ang, Milena, and Nalepa, Monika. 2019a. “Replication files for: Can Transitional Justice Improve the Quality of Representation in New Democracies?” Harvard Dataverse, V1. doi: 10.7910/DVN/XC4E1I.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ang, Milena, and Nalepa, Monika. 2019b. “Supplementary material for: Can Transitional Justice Improve the Quality of Representation in New Democracies?” doi: 10.1017/S0043887119000066.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, Genevieve, Cinar, Ipek, and Nalepa, Monika. 2019. “Accountability by the Numbers: Introducing the Global Transitional Justice Events Dataset (1946– 2016).” Perspectives on Politics. doi: 10.1017/S153759000756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, Michael, and Kubik, Jan, eds. 2014. Twenty Years after Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, John M., and Shugart, Matthew Soberg. 1995. “Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote: A Rank Ordering of Electoral Formulas.” Electoral Studies 14, no. 4: 417–39. doi: 10.1016/0261-3794(94)00035-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Royce, and Nalepa, Monika. 2019. “When Do Open Lists Matter? The Consequences of the Personal Vote for Party Loyalty.” Parliamentary Affairs. doi: 10.1093/pa/gsz027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Royce, and Nalepa, Monika. Forthcoming. “Electoral Systems and Programmatic Parties: The Institutional Underpinnings of Parties’ Ideological Cohesion.” Journal of Theoretical Politics.Google Scholar
Chapman, Audrey R. 2009. “Truth Finding in the Transitional Justice Process.” In van der Merwe, Hugo, Baxter, Victoria, and Chapman, Audrey R., eds. Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research. Washington, D.C.: US Institute of Peace.Google Scholar
Cheibub, José Antonio, Gandhi, Jennifer, and Vreeland, James Raymond. 2010. “Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited.” Public Choice 143, no. 1–2: 67–101. doi: 10.1007/s11127-009-9491-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Stanley. 1995. “State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past.” Law & Social Inquiry 20, no. 1: 7–50. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-4469.1995.tb00681.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, Keith A. 2001. “Blackmail as a Tool of State Domination: Ukraine under Kuchma.” East European Constitutional Review 10, nos. 2 & 3: 67–71. At https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/eeurcr10&i=171, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
David, Roman. 2003. “Lustration Laws in Action: The Motives and Evaluation of Lustration Policy in the Czech Republic and Poland (1989–2001).” Law & Social Inquiry 28, no. 2: 387–439. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-4469.2003.tb00197.x.Google Scholar
David, Roman. 2006. “From Prague to Baghdad: Lustration Systems and Their Political Effects.” Government and Opposition 41, no. 3: 347–72. doi: 10.1111/j.1477-7053.2006.00183.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, Roman. 2011. Lustration and Transitional Justice: Personnel Systems in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Brito, Alexandra Barahona, González-Enríquez, Carmen, and Aguilar, Paloma. 2001. The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
de Greiff, Pablo, and Mayer-Rieckh, Alexander, eds. 2007. Justice as Prevention: Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies. New York, N.Y.: Social Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Dragu, Tiberiu. 2017. “On Repression and Its Effectiveness.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 29, no. 4: 599–622. doi: 10.1177/0951629817710563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dragu, Tiberiu, and Polborn, Mattias. 2013. “The Administrative Foundation of the Rule of Law.” Journal of Politics 75, no. 4: 1038–50. doi: 10.1017/S002238161300100X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Mark S. 1996. “Purging the Past: The Current State of Lustration Laws in the Former Communist Bloc.” Law and Contemporary Problems 59, no. 4: 181–96. doi: 10.2307/1192198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1998. “Coming to Terms with the Past: A Framework for the Study of Justice in the Transition to Democracy.” European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie 39, no. 1: 7–48. doi: 10.1017/S0003975600007785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon. 2004. Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Escribà-Folch, Abel, and Wright, Joseph. 2015. “Human Rights Prosecutions and Autocratic Survival.” International Organization 69, no. 2: 343–73. doi: 10.1017/S0020818314000484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felli, Leonardo, and Hortala-Vallve, Rafael. 2016. “Collusion, Blackmail and Whistle-Blowing.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 11, no. 3: 279–312. doi: 10.1561/100.00015060.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gandhi, Jennifer, and Przeworski, Adam. 2007. “Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats.” Comparative Political Studies 40, no. 11: 1279–301. doi: 10.1177/0010414007305817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, Barbara, Wright, Joseph, and Frantz, Erica. 2014. “Autocratic Breakdown and Regime Transitions: A New Data Set.” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 2: 313–31. doi: 10.1017/S1537592714000851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halmai, Gábor, and Scheppele, Kim Lane. 1997. “Living Well Is the Best Revenge: The Hungarian Approach to Judging the Past.” In James McAdams, A., ed. Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies. Notre Dame, In.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Holmes, Stephen. 1994. “The End of Decommunization.” East European Constitutional Review 3, nos. 3 & 4: 33–36. At https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/eeurcr3&i=251, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Horne, Cynthia M. 2009. “International Legal Rulings on Lustration Policies in Central and Eastern Europe: Rule of Law in Historical Context.” Law & Social Inquiry 34, no. 3: 713–44. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-4469.2009.01162.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horne, Cynthia M. 2017. Building Trust and Democracy: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Countries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaminski, Marek M., Nalepa, Monika, and O’Neill, Barry. 2006. “Normative and Strategic Aspects of Transitional Justice.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 50, no. 3: 295–302. doi: 10.1177/0022002706286949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keefer, Philip. 2007. “Clientelism, Credibility, and the Policy Choices of Young Democracies.” American Journal of Political Science 51, no. 4: 804–21. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00282.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, and Freeze, Kent. 2010. “Programmatic Party System Structuration: Developing and Comparing Cross-National and Cross-Party Measures with a New Global Data Set.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., August 30–September 2. At https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1642963.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, Freeze, Kent, Kolev, Kiril, and Wang, Yi-Ting. 2009. “Measuring Democratic Accountability: An Initial Report on an Emerging Data Set.” Revista de ciencia política 29, no. 3: 741–73. doi: 10.4067/s0718-090x2009000300004.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, and Wilkinson, Steven I., eds. 2007. Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kritz, Neil J. 1995. Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: US Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Laplante, Lisa J., and Phenicie, Kelly. 2009. “Mediating Post-Conflict Dialogue: The Media’s Role in Transitional Justice Processes.” Marquette Law Review 93, no. 1: 251–84. At https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/marqlr93&i=253, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Lessing, Benjamin, and Willis, Graham Denyer. 2019. “Legitimacy in Criminal Governance: Managing a Drug Empire from Behind Bars.” American Political Science Review 113, no. 2: 584–606. doi: 10.1017/s0003055418000928.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letki, Natalia. 2002. “Lustration and Democratisation in East-Central Europe.” Europe-Asia Studies 54, no. 4: 529–52. doi: 10.1080/09668130220139154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lie, Tove Grete, Binningsbo, Helga Malmin, and Gates, Scott. 2007. “Post-Conflict Justice and Sustainable Peace.” Research Working Paper no. WPS4191; Post-Conflict Transitions Working Paper no. PC5. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. At http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/245511468136802490/Post-conflict-justice-and-sustainable-peace, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Lundy, Patricia, and McGovern, Mark. 2008. “Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up.” Journal of Law and Society 35, no. 2: 265–92. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2008.00438.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott P. 1999. Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization: The Case of Brazil. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mallinder, Louise. 2008. Amnesty, Human Rights and Political Transitions: Bridging the Peace and Justice Divide. Portland, Ore.: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Medina, Luis Fernando, and Stokes, Susan. 2007. “Monopoly and Monitoring: An Approach to Political Clientelism.” In Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I., eds. Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Michink, Adam. 2007. “The Polish Witch-Hunt.” Gross, Irena Grudzinska and Amsterdamska, Olga, trans. New York Review of Books 54, no. 11: 25. At https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/06/28/the-polish-witch-hunt/, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Nalepa, Monika. 2008. “To Punish the Guilty and Protect the Innocent: Comparing Truth Revelation Procedures.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 20, no. 2: 221–45. doi: 10.1177/0951629807085819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nalepa, Monika. 2010. Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nedelsky, Nadya. 2013. “From Velvet Revolution to Velvet Justice: The Case of Slovakia.” In Popovski, Vesselin and Serrano, Mónica, eds., After Oppression: Transitional Justice in Latin America and Eastern Europe. New York, N.Y.: United Nations University Press. doi: 10.18356/82442411-en.Google Scholar
Olsen, Tricia D. 2010. “Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy.” At http://www.openisbn.org/download/1601270534.pdf, accessed August 21, 2014.Google Scholar
Payne, Leigh A., Olsen, Tricia D., and Reiter, Andrew G.. 2011. “Transitional Justice Database Project.” At http://www.tjdbproject.com/, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Pettai, Eva-Clarita, and Pettai, Vello. 2014. Transitional and Retrospective Justice in the Baltic States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pinto, António Costa. 2010. “The Authoritarian Past and South European Democracies: An Introduction.” South European Society and Politics 15, no. 3: 339–58. doi: 10.1080/13608746.2010.513598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, Grigore. 2007. “Historical Legacies and Post-Communist Regime Change.” Journal of Politics 69, no. 4: 908–26. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2508.2007.00598.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, Grigore. 2010. “Throwing out the Bums: Protest Voting and Unorthodox Parties after Communism.” World Politics 62, no. 2 (April): 221–60. doi: 10.1017/S0043887110000043.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, Grigore, and Tucker, Joshua A.. 2011. “Communism’s Shadow: Postcommunist Legacies, Values, and Behavior.” Comparative Politics 43, no. 4: 379–99. At http://www.jstor.org/stable/23040635, accessed August 27, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pop-Eleches, Grigore, and Tucker, Joshua A.. 2012. “Associated with the Past? Communist Legacies and Civic Participation in Post-Communist Countries.” East European Politics and Societies 27, no. 1: 45–68. doi: 10.1177/0888325412465087.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borders, Reporters Without. 2015. “World Press Freedom Index 2015.” Paris, France: Reporters Without Borders. At https://rsf.org/en/world-press-freedom-index-2015, accessed April 3, 2019.Google Scholar
Ritter, Emily Hencken, and Wolford, Scott. 2012. “Bargaining and the Effectiveness of International Criminal Regimes.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 24, no. 2: 149–71. doi: 10.1177/0951629811429048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stan, Lavinia. 2006. “The Vanishing Truth? Politics and Memory in Post-Communist Europe.” East European Quarterly 40, no. 4: 383–409.Google Scholar
Stan, Lavinia. 2009. Transitional Justice in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Reckoning with the Communist Past. London, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stan, Lavinia. 2012. “Witch-Hunt or Moral Rebirth? Romanian Parliamentary Debates on Lustration.” East European Politics and Societies 26, no. 2: 274–95. doi: 10.1177/0888325411403922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stan, Lavinia. 2013. “Reckoning with the Communist Past in Romania: A Scorecard.” Europe-Asia Studies 65, no. 1: 127–46. doi: 10.1080/09668136.2012.698052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stan, Lavinia, and Nedelsky, Nadya, eds. 2015. Post-Communist Transitional Justice: Lessons from Twenty-Five Years of Experience. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavits, Margit. 2005. “The Development of Stable Party Support: Electoral Dynamics in Post-Communist Europe.” American Journal of Political Science 49, no. 2: 283–98. doi: 10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00123.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thaler, Richard H., and Sunstein, Cass R.. 2003. “Libertarian Paternalism.” American Economic Review 93, no. 2: 175–79. doi: 10.1257/000282803321947001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thoms, Oskar N. T., Ron, James, and Paris, Roland. 2008. “The Effects of Transitional Justice Mechanisms: A Summary of Empirical Research Findings and Implications for Analysts and Practitioners.” Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Centre for International Policy Studies: At http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~rparis/CIPS_Transitional_Justice_April2008.pdf, accessed May 2, 2019.Google Scholar
Tyson, Scott A. 2018. “The Agency Problem Underlying Repression.” Journal of Politics 80, no. 4: 1297–310. doi: 10.1086/698887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Merwe, Hugo, Baxter, Victoria, and Chapman, Audrey R., eds. 2009. Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research. Washington, D.C.: US Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Volčič, Zala, and Simić, Olivera. 2013. “Localizing Transitional Justice: Civil Society Practices and Initiatives in the Balkans.” In Simić, Olivera and Volčič, Zala, eds., Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans. Springer Series in Transitional Justice. New York, N.Y.: Springer New York.Google Scholar
Wilde, Alexander. 1999. “Irruptions of Memory: Expressive Politics in Chile’s Transition to Democracy.” Journal of Latin American Studies 31, no. 2: 473–500. doi: 10.1017/s0022216x99005349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yarhi-Milo, Keren. 2013. “Tying Hands behind Closed Doors: The Logic and Practice of Secret Reassurance.” Security Studies 22, no. 3: 405–35. doi: 10.1080/09636412.2013.816126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ang and Nalepa supplementary material

Appendices A-D

Download Ang and Nalepa supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 807.7 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Ang and Nalepa Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XC4E1I
Link