The Conceptual Nexus of Human Rights and Democracy in the Polish Lustration Debates 1989-97

In: The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Band 22, Heft 2, S. 228-248

Abstract

The practice of transitional justice in Poland has been closely linked to the process of democratization, but the nature & dynamics of that relationship have remained hotly contested. While both the opponents & the proponents of so-called "lustration" justified their positions in the vocabulary of liberal democracy, they tended to approach the concepts of rights & democracy from two theoretically distinct positions. The debates surrounding this issue revealed & solidified the post-communist cleavage within the group of the former dissidents in regard to their normative theorization of democracy, & a characteristic of this cleavage was polarization of the concepts of restorative justice & retributive justice. Adapted from the source document.