The use of transitology in the field of transitional justice: a critique of the literature on the 'third wave' of democratisation

This article analyses the role and the limits of transitology in framing transitional justice studies after the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It examines the evolution of the scholarship with reference to three main topics that have been pioneered by transitologists and developed further by transitional justice scholars, namely: the connections between justice for past abuses and democratisation; the determinants of transitional justice; and the relationship between accountability and the passage of time. The article argues that while transitology has nurtured important research initiatives in the field of transitional justice, its approaches suffer from serious shortcomings. They remained overly prescriptive and short-term in focus, and they often dehistoricised social phenomena. Adopting a teleological perspective on transitions supposedly bound for democracy, they overlooked comparisons and interconnections between transitional justice processes originating in democratic contexts and those arising from dictatorial settings. Moreover, in their attempt to build general typologies and establish causalities between types of dictatorial regimes, exit modes from authoritarianism and justice mechanisms, transitological approaches often failed to explain the peculiarities of national cases, and likewise paid scant attention to international contexts and transnational interactions

The use of transitology in the field of transitional justice: a critique of the literature on the 'third wave' of democratisation

This article analyses the role and the limits of transitology in framing transitional justice studies after the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It examines the evolution of the scholarship with reference to three main topics that have been pioneered by transitologists and developed further by transitional justice scholars, namely: the connections between justice for past abuses and democratisation; the determinants of transitional justice; and the relationship between accountability and the passage of time. The article argues that while transitology has nurtured important research initiatives in the field of transitional justice, its approaches suffer from serious shortcomings. They remained overly prescriptive and short-term in focus, and they often dehistoricised social phenomena. Adopting a teleological perspective on transitions supposedly bound for democracy, they overlooked comparisons and interconnections between transitional justice processes originating in democratic contexts and those arising from dictatorial settings. Moreover, in their attempt to build general typologies and establish causalities between types of dictatorial regimes, exit modes from authoritarianism and justice mechanisms, transitological approaches often failed to explain the peculiarities of national cases, and likewise paid scant attention to international contexts and transnational interactions

Une analyse critique de la transitologie: valeurs heuristiques, limites d'interprétation et difficultés méthodologiques

By the end of 1970s, transitology, or the study of the transformations following the breakdown of dictatorial regimes, became a sub-discipline of political science. Various theoretical perspectives oriented the analysis toward different factors that could decisively influence political change and transition: the economic and cultural prerequisites, the weight of the recent past, the extrication-path from dictatorship or the international setting. This article examines critically the main currents of transitology in order to re-evaluate their heuristic capacity, their interpretative limits and their methodological difficulties. It stands for rethinking the paradigms of political transition, towards a multidimensional model of analysis of political change, more sensitive to the local specificities and to the dynamic of transformations on the long term

The political conversion of the romanian communist elites after 1989

Cette thèse retrace le processus de transformation des anciennes élites communistes roumaines et leurs trajectoires politiques entre 1989 et 2000. Dans cette perspective, elle identifie les mécanismes de conversion mis en œuvre, les modalités d’intégration dans le nouveau jeu politique, la construction de nouvelles identités politiques et le positionnement de ces élites par rapport aux thématiques qui ont structuré la vie politique après 1989, notamment le rapport à l’ancien régime et la réforme économique. Cette thèse est structurée en quatre parties. La première a pour but de saisir la spécificité du communisme roumain et de ses élites, tout comme de mener un questionnement sur le concept de nomenklatura, afin d’apporter des clarifications sur la nature du système de pouvoir en régime communiste. La deuxième partie examine les bouleversements de décembre 1989, accordant une attention particulière aux effets qu’ils génèrent sur la mobilité des élites politiques. Nous nous interrogeons sur la nature de la dissolution du régime communiste roumain, sur le degré de rupture et de continuité par rapport à ce régime. La troisième partie de la recherche examine le degré de reproduction de la nomenklatura dans les institutions politiques nationales entre 1990 et 2000 : les parlements, les gouvernements et les administrations présidentielles. Elle saisit également le regroupement politique des anciennes élites dans différentes formations partisanes et elle propose des typologies des partis issus de la nomenklatura suite à l’analyse de leur positionnement par rapport à la réforme économique et à la question de la gestion du passé. La quatrième partie dresse un tableau de la justice de transition dans la Roumanie postcommuniste, avec un accent particulier sur le rôle que les anciennes élites jouent dans l’adoption ou dans le rejet de différentes mesures de gestion du passé.This thesis recounts the transformation of the former Romanian communist elites and their political trajectories between 1989 and 2000. It identifies the mechanisms of political conversion, the various ways in which the former nomenklatura adapts itself to the new political game, the building of the new political identities and the positioning of the former elites towards the themes that structured the Romanian political life after 1989: the attitude towards to the recent past and the economic reforms. This thesis is structured in four parts. The first one retraces the specificity of the Romanian communism and its elites. The second one examines the events of December 1989 in Romania, with a particular attention to their effects on the mobility of the political elites. We are questioning the nature of the extrication path from communism and the degree of the changing of social hierarchies determined by the demise of the communist regime. The third part of the thesis analyses the degree of the reproduction of the former nomenklatura in the national political institutions between 1990 and 2000: the parliaments, the governments and the presidential administrations. It redraws the political regrouping of the former elites in different political parties and determines the typologies of the political parties created by the former nomenklatura members, according to their position towards the economic reform and the attitude to the former communist regime. The fourth part analyses the Romanian post-communist transitional justice, with a particular accent on the role played by the former communist elites in the adoption or the rejection of different policies of dealing with the past

“Introduction: Justice, Memory and Transnational Networks. European and South American Entanglements”

International audienc

TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM AND THE GLOBALISATION OF ANTI-COMMUNISM AFTER 1989 INTRODUCTION

International audienc