The Ideological Dilemma of Lustration in Poland
The Ideological Dilemma of Lustration in Poland

Summary/Abstract: New regimes, whether democracies or not, often purge the ranks of their leadership and sometimes even their bureaucracy to remove individuals tainted by their connection to the old regime. After their transitions of 1989-1990, many Central European regimes embarked on a project that they called "lustration," a word whose Latin root has connotations of political hygiene. Lustration entailed the screening of bureaucrats and political leaders to ascertain who had collaborated with the communist-era secret police. Collaborators lost their government positions. [...]

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