Annales Scientia Politica (Jun 2023)
Features and consequences of lustration processes in the Visegrad group countries
Abstract
The study systematised the preconditions, reasons, peculiarities, procedural aspects, legislative outline, and consequences of lustration processes in the Visegrad Group Countries, namely Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. At the same time, the author based their work on the assumption that lustration – or purge of the officials – was one of the main prerequisites for legitimising political power as a result of the collapse of “old” autocratic communist regimes and the beginning of democratisation and consolidation of the countries of this region. In other words, the study was mainly aimed at clarifying the content and functions, legislative outline and regulation, practices and effects of lustration processes in post-autocratic and democratising political regimes of the Visegrad Group Countries. To do this, the meaning of the concept of “lustration” and the state of the study and understanding of its procedural manifestations and expected effects in the Visegrad Group Countries were first outlined. After that, the author studied and structured the political, legal, and institutional causes, the nature and types of lustration processes in the Visegrad Group Countries. Finally, a comparative analysis (in the format of individual case studies and regional comparisons) of logic, content, and practical implementation of lustration acts, processes and procedures in the analysed Visegrad Group Countries was carried out. As a result, it was concluded that lustration – at least symbolically and ideologically – was indeed a successful mechanism for legitimising a more successful transition from the previous or “old” autocratic regime to the new democratic political regime in the region. After all, a qualitative theorisation of the phenomenon, essence, and components of lustration processes was performed in the Visegrad Group Countries, and the region itself is now quite often held up as an example to other states in this context. However, at the same time it was found that in reality lustration in the countries under consideration was regulated and implemented in very different ways – both in terms of procedures and the resulting consequences, – and this was largely influenced by various dividends and risks during the renewal of political elites through channels and by means of various lustration options. However, in general, the practice of lustration in the region has shown that after the symbolic legitimisation of “new” government, in almost all Visegrad Group Countries lustration started to become less effective and increasingly manipulative and artificial.
