LUSTRATION IN EASTERN EUROPE: THE KEY TO BREAKING FREE FROM RUSSIAN INFLUENCE

Abstract

This research investigates some of the factors behind Georgia's failure to adopt an effective lustration law that may have aided Georgia’s democratic growth by excluding communists and Moscow-influenced entities from the nation’s sovereign political development. This thesis argues for lustration law as essential for the country’s further democratization and integration into the family of Western liberal democracies. This research employs a comparative case-study analysis of lustration in the Czech Republic and Poland to demonstrate that both post-communist nations encountered similar hurdles in adopting this transitional justice practice. The Czech Republic pursued more proactive measures of lustrating its public sector without giving known collaborators a chance to return to the public service. By contrast, Poland developed a rather tolerant lustration statute, which gave communist collaborators the option to remain in office in exchange for revealing the truth and compliance. By eradicating old Soviet ties from their respective public sectors, the Czech Republic and Poland have been able to pursue democratic reforms, resulting in stronger government structures and an easier accession to membership in NATO and the European Union.