CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Thompson, Ethan William |
|---|---|
| Title | Transitional Justice in Context: The Historical Roots of Lustration Law in Post-Communist Poland |
| Summary | Dealing with officials from the previous regime is an important issue for any country transitioning to democracy. Many of the former Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe attempted to resolve this dilemma through the transitional justice mechanism of lustration, or vetting of officials based on the archives of the former secret police. This thesis investigates the origins of lustration law in post-communist Poland, and attempts to answer two main questions: why did the law occur when it did, and why did it take the unique shape that it did? To answer these questions I examine the period prior to transition and posit that the rise of Solidarity as the first independent trade union in the former communist bloc directly affected the timing of lustration in Poland, and that the influence of the Catholic Church and the dissident movement under communism helped shape the 1997 Polish lustration law. |
| Supervisor | Dimitrijevic, Nenad |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/thompson_ethan.pdf |
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