Assessing the Impact of Lustration on Trust in Public Institutions and National Government in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Lustration is alternately theorized and anecdotally alleged to either undermine or contribute to the democratic transitions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by supporting or undermining trust in public institutions, and by extension trust in national government. Using quantitative data on nine countries in CEE, this study examines the impact of lustration and transitional justice measures on citizen perceptions of the trustworthiness of public institutions and national government. It tests whether and how the timing of lustration, the severity of lustration, or the packaging of lustration with other forms of transitional justice affect trust in public institutions and national government. This article finds that even when controlling for economic growth, democratization, and corruption levels, lustration consistently and positively contributes to citizen trust in public institutions. However, lustration and transitional justice measures have an indirect and diluted impact on trust in national government, Comparative Political Studies 45(4)Bio Cynthia M. Horne is an associate professor of political science at Western Washington University. Her research interests focus on economic and political aspects of post-Communist transitions, with an emphasis on transitional justice issues and the role of trust in regime building. She is most grateful to Benjamin Smith, Todd Donovan, and Margaret Levi for comments and suggestions on this paper.

The Processes of Democratisation and the Issu

“…In order to provide additional confirmation for our argument, we test these results against a multi-value variable approach, relying on as few logical assumptions as possible. First, we adapt two incomplete indexes of lustration to provide additional variation on the outcome (Horne, 2011 (Stan, 2009a) confirms our results. Countries with most 'vigorous' lustrative approaches were the ones that experienced medium to high levels of interwar democracy and high oppression (Formula 3).…”

Introduction

“…In order to provide additional confirmation for our argument, we test these results against a multi-value variable approach, relying on as few logical assumptions as possible. First, we adapt two incomplete indexes of lustration to provide additional variation on the outcome (Horne, 2011). Second, we disaggregate the scores of interwar democracy into (Stan, 2009a) confirms our results.…”

Reforming post‐Communist bureaucracies: The effect of transitional justice

“…Measuring lustration is a challenging task because of its various aspects and in many instances, interrupted implementation. For a discussion of various measures of lustration, see Horne ().…”

“…In coding this variable, we draw upon Horne (), Stan (), and secondary sources. Horne assesses the scope, size, intensity, and implementation of lustration policy instruments.…”

“…8 Measuring lustration is a challenging task because of its various aspects and in many instances, interrupted implementation. For a discussion of various measures of lustration, see Horne (2012). 9 The motive presented by the Constitutional Court justices was that this piece of legislation was in violation of the principles of equal right to employment for all citizens (Dimitrov et al, 2006, p. 228).…”