“Decommunisation”, “Lustration”, and Constitutional Continuity

The post communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), at the outset of the transition to democracy, had to face not only the difficult problems posed by the present and the future, but also those stemming from the past: how to handle the widespread violations of human rights, the travesty of legality, the pervasiveness of collaboration with the secret police, and the often blatant crimes conducted for political reasons that characterised the immediate past. The peaceful, negotiated form of transition that prevailed in the region meant that the various perpetrators of these unsavoury acts have remained very much part of their respective societies during the transition to democracy, and often belong to the political elite that was (co-)responsible for the move away from the very political system in which they had been active participants. How is it possible to reconcile legal tolerance towards those people with the requirements of political justice and with the exigencies of a democratic society? Should politics be “cleansed” of those discredited by their direct involvement with the Communist regime, with the risk of creating a category of second-class citizenship and the resulting danger of disloyalty towards the democratic state, or rather adopt the “let bygones be bygones” attitude and implement, for the sake of national reconciliation, a policy of forgiveness, even if not of forgetting?