Title Settling accounts : violence, justice, and accountability in postsocialist Europe / John Borneman

Published Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©1997

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 197 pages) Series Princeton studies in culture/power/history Princeton studies in culture/power/history. Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part One: Framing, Comparing, Historicizing -- Chapter 1. Framing the Rule of Lawin East-Central Europe -- Chapter 2. Comparing: Decommunization--Recommunization--Reform? -- Chapter 3. Historicizing the Rule of Law -- Part Two: Ethnography Of Criminality -- Chapter 4. The Invocation of the Rechtsstaat in East Germany: Governmental and Unification Criminality -- Chapter 5. Accountability on Trial -- Part Three: Ethnography of Vindication -- Chapter 6. Democratic Accountability: Results, Evaluations, Ramifications -- Chapter 7. Justice and Dignity: Victims, Vindication, and Accountability -- Part Four: Legitimacy -- Chapter 8. The Rule of Law and the State: Violence, Justice, and Legitimacy -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Name Index Summary As new states in the former East bloc begin to reckon with their criminal pasts in the years following a revolutionary change of regimes, a basic pattern emerges: In those states where some form of retributive justice has been publicly enacted, there has generally been much less of a recourse to collective retributive violence. In Settling Accounts, John Borneman explores the attempts by these aspiring democratic states to invoke the principles of the "rule of law" as a means of achieving retributive justice, that is, convicting wrongdoers and restoring dignity to victims of moral injuries. Democratic regimes, Borneman maintains, require a strict form of accountability that holds leaders responsible for acts of criminality. This accountability is embodied in the principles of the rule of law, and retribution is at the moral center of these principles. Drawing from his ethnographic work in the former East Germany and with select comparisons to other East-Central European states, Borneman critically examines the construction of categories of criminality. He argues against the claims that economic growth, liberal democracy, or acts of reconciliation are adequate means to legitimate the transformed East bloc states. The cycles of violence in states lacking a system of retributive justice help to support this claim. Invocation of the principles of the rule of law must be seen as a chance for a more democratic, more accountable, and less violent world Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-185) and index Notes Print version record Subject Post-communism -- Europe, Eastern Rule of law -- Europe, Eastern Reparation (Criminal justice) -- Europe, Eastern Political crimes and offenses -- Europe, Eastern Retribution. Social justice -- Europe, Eastern punishing. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture. Political crimes and offenses Politics and government Post-communism Reparation (Criminal justice) Retribution Rule of law Social justice Social policy SUBJECT Europe, Eastern -- Social policy Europe, Eastern -- Politics and government -- 1989- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh90000580 Subject Eastern Europe Form Electronic book ISBN 1400811090 9781400811090 9781400822348 1400822343 9780691016818 069101681X 9780691016825 0691016828

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