One of the most important political and ethical issues faced during a political transition from authoritarian or totalitarian to democratic rule is how to deal with legacies of repression. This book explores the important aspect of transitional politics, assessing how Portugal, Spain, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Germany after reunification, Russia, the Southern Cone of Latin America and Central America, as well as South Africa, have confronted legacies of repression. The book explores how new democracies face an authoritarian past and past human rights violations, and the way in which policies of truth and justice shape the process of democratization. Eighteen countries in Central and South America, Central, Eastern and South Europe and South Africa are analysed in detail. The main variables affecting the implementation of truth and justice policies (purges, truth commissions and trials, among other policies) are: the balance between old and new regime forces; the availability of institutional, human and financial resources, the nature of the ideological preferences and commitments of the elites in question; the mobilization of social groups pressing in favour of these policies; and the importance of human rights in the international arena. The duration and degree of institutionalization of dictatorship is also important. A prolonged dictatorship makes it harder for a new democracy to implement truth and justice policies, particularly when repression occurred in the distant past and if repression gained social complicity. The magnitude and methods of repression used against opposition forces in the dictatorship also shape transitional truth and justice: torture, assassination, and disappearances and clandestine repression in general (as in Central and South America, South Africa) require a different response to official institutionalized ‘softer’ repression (as in Portugal, Spain and Eastern Europe). The findings indicate that, with hindsight, there appears to be no direct relation between the implementation of policies of backward-looking truth and justice and the quality of new democracies. Democracy is just as strong and deep in Spain, Hungary and Uruguay, where there was no punishment or truth telling, as it is in Portugal, the Czech Republic or Argentina, which experienced purges and trials. However, such policies are justified not merely on instrumental grounds, but also for ethical reasons, and they symbolize a break with a violent, undemocratic past One of the most important political and ethical questions faced during a political transition from authoritarian or totalitarian to democratic rule is how to deal with legacies of repression. Indeed, some of the most fundamental questions regarding law, morality and politics are raised at such times, as societies look back to understand how they lost their moral and political compass, failing to contain violence and promote the values of tolerance and peace. The Politics of Memory sheds light on this important aspect of transitional politics, assessing how Portugal, Spain, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Germany after reunification, Russia, the Southern Cone of Latin America and Central America, as well as South Africa, have confronted legacies of repression. The book examines the presence - or absence - of three types of official efforts to come to terms with the past: truth commissions, trials and amnesties, and purges. In addition, it looks at unofficial initiatives emerging from within society, usually involving human rights organisations (HROs), churches or political parties. Where relevant, it also examines the 'politics of memory,' whereby societies re-work the past in an effort to come to terms with it, both during the transitions and long after official transitional policies have been implemented or forgotten. The book also assesses the significance of forms of reckoning with the past for a process of democratization or democratic deepening. It also focuses on the role of international actors in such processes, as external players are becoming increasingly influential in shaping national policy where human rights are concerned. Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 8 List of Tables and Figure......Page 12 Abbreviations......Page 13 Contributors......Page 23 Introduction......Page 28 1. The Role of International Actors in National Accountability Processes......Page 67 2. Settling Accounts with the Past in a Troubled Transition to Democracy: The Portuguese Case......Page 92 3. Justice, Politics and Memory in the Spanish Transition......Page 119 4. Truth, Justice, Memory, and Democratization in the Southern Cone......Page 146 5. War, Peace, and Memory Politics in Central America......Page 188 6. Justice and Legitimacy in the South African Transition......Page 217 7. De-communization and Political Justice in Central and Eastern Europe......Page 245 8. East Germany: Incorporation, Tainted Truth, and the Double Division......Page 275 9. In Search of Identity: The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Recreation of Russia......Page 302 10. Conclusions Carmen González-Enríquez, Paloma Aguilar, Alexandra Barahona de Brito......Page 330 Bibliographical Survey......Page 342 References......Page 379 C......Page 434 E......Page 435 I......Page 436 N......Page 437 P......Page 438 S......Page 439 Z......Page 440 This book explores how new governments and societies deal with a legacy of past repression, in Portugal, Spain, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Germany after reunification, as well as Latin America, Central America and South Africa
