Retribution and Reparation in the Transition to Democracy

The contributions in this volume offer a comprehensive analysis of transitional justice from 1945 to the present.

Jon Elster (Edited by)

9780521829731, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 May 2006

352 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.4 cm, 0.67 kg

"This is a highly enjoyable, analytically rigorous and historically rich collection of essays on a fascinating, timely, and consequential topic. It is an important contribution to the already substantial and growing literature on transitional justice...The chapters in this volume engage the reader in a continuous dialogue between theory and concrete examples, back and forth."
-Julio Rios-Figueroa, NYU School of Law, The Law and Politics Book Review

The contributions in this volume offer a comprehensive analysis of transitional justice from 1945 to the present. They focus on retribution against the leaders and agents of the autocratic regime preceding the democratic transition, and on reparation to its victims. Part I contains general theoretical discussions of retribution and reparation. The essays in Part II survey transitional justice in the wake of World War II, covering Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Norway. In Part III, the contributors discuss more recent transitions in Argentina, Chile, Eastern Europe, the former German Democratic Republic, and South Africa, including a chapter on the reparation of injustice in some of these transitions. The editor provides a general introduction, brief introductions to each part, and a conclusion that looks beyond regime transitions to broader issues of rectifying historical injustice.

1. Introduction Jon Elster
Part I. General Issues: 2. Restitution: how far back should we go? Tyler Cowen
3. Retribution Jon Elster
Part II. Germany and German-Occupied Countries after 1945: 4. Transitional justice in divided Germany after 1945 David Cohen
5. Purges in France after the Liberation Henry Rousso
6. Political justice in Austria and Hungary after World War II Istvan Deák
7. Dealing with the past in Scandinavia Hans Fredrik Dahl
8. Belgian and Dutch purges after World War II compared Luc Huyse
Part III. Latin America, Post-Communism, and South Africa: 9. Paranoids may be persecuted: post-totalitarian retroactive justice Aviezer Tucker
10. Transitional justice in Argentina and Chile: a never ending story? Carlos H. Acuña
11. Transitional justice in the German Democratic Republic and in Unified Germany Claus Offe and Ulrike Poppe
12. Rough justice: rectification in post-authoritarian and post-totalitarian regimes Aviezer Tucker
13. Accountability and the South African experience Alex Boraine
14. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Politics & government [JP], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], General & world history [HBG]