POLI 331 Chapter Notes -Decommunization
23 Apr 2014
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The author argues that decommunization has been gutted in most eastern european countries (the article was written in 1994). He remarks that former communists have been elected to offices, and people convicted of crimes under the communist regime (most notably. There is a need to look towards the future instead of rummaging in the past. Criminal penalties can be replaced by civil punishments. Only the victims get to forgive the wrongdoers. A post-communist society has to remember the past in order to heal. The maintenance of the rule of law requires accountability. While there once was a vigorous debate about the desirability of decommunization among these countries" elites, at the time of the article"s writing there was very little public appetite for decommunization. There is no clamour for revenge, and attempts to use politicians" communist past against them has failed.
