Positive and negative impact of punishment in transitional societies (original) (raw)

Lustration is the well-known process that occurred in a wide range of countries in Eastern Europe as a type of mechanism that would provide distancing of the state and new regime from the past, while at the same time having an aim to provide political stability to emerging democracies. Lustration refers to the process of screening groups of people for previous acts of collaboration under the communist regime, disqualifying members of these groups from holding high-level positions in the public sector. Conducted throughout series of laws that were set for a specific period, lustration was most strictly conducted in Czechoslovakia (specifically in the Czech Republic) where discrimination was implemented in the widest area of professions, comparing to other fellow V4 countries. Followed by its example, Hungary introduced a policy of lustration in a smaller number of areas, while Poland was the latest one to adopt this policy and not strictly as Czechoslovakia. Slovakia, even though de lege had lustration active, never really stick to it. O This phenomenon can be discussed focusing on several levels: political, legal and ethical. Considering political turmoil in the mentioned countries, it was expected for the reform to keep a big distance from patterns of the past and try to destroy any possible trace of it in the new state. Proponents of lustration often argue that this process is necessary to cleanse the state morally and that this is the best possible way to remove former political forces that could potentially return the communist regime. The relationship between the strength of the successor communist party and the strength of lustration programs was considered direct: as one rose, the other waned as Appel stated. One good connection noticed by Appel is that through formalized anti-communist programs-it is too closely linked to the process of developing a new national identity for these programs to be consistently popular throughout the region, and that is also one of the reasons for meticulous conduction of the program.