After Authoritarianism
Transitional Justice and Democratic Stability

This book shows that transitional justice succeeds when it makes transparent secret legacies of the former authoritarian regime.

Monika Nalepa (Author)

9781316513439, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 September 2022

300 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.7 cm, 0.69 kg

'… the book combines analytical narratives and empirical data, the latter conveniently assembled in appendixes following thematic chapters … Recommended.' S. Mitropolitski, Choice

Transitional justice – the act of reckoning with a former authoritarian regime after it has ceased to exist – has direct implications for democratic processes. Mechanisms of transitional justice have the power to influence who decides to go into politics, can shape politicians' behavior while in office, and can affect how politicians delegate policy decisions. However, these mechanisms are not all alike: some, known as transparency mechanisms, uncover authoritarian collaborators who did their work in secret while others, known as purges, fire open collaborators of the old regime. After Authoritarianism analyzes this distinction in order to uncover the contrasting effects these mechanisms have on sustaining and shaping the qualities of democratic processes. Using a highly disaggregated global transitional justice dataset, the book shows that mechanisms of transitional justice are far from being the epilogue of an outgoing authoritarian regime, and instead represent the crucial first chapter in a country's democratic story.

1. Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie?
2. Blackmail and Transparency
3. Purging the Authoritarian State
4. Measuring Transitional Justice
5. Lustration and Programmatic Representation
6. Truth Commissions and the Quality of Democracy
7. Purges and the Quality of Democracy
8. Taking stock: Joint Analysis of all Mechanisms
9. Conclusion: Beyond Ritual Sacrifices
10. Appendices.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB]