Communists and Their Victims

Roman David is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He is author of Lustration and Transitional Justice: Personnel Systems in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

"David's findings should be required reading for everyone interested in postconflict and postrepression justice, and his methodology supplies a template that could and should be replicated elsewhere." (Times Literary Supplement) "Roman David has written a perceptive and wise book on transitional justice in Eastern Europe that transcends his focus, the postcommunist Czech Republic, in time and place . . . [A] refreshing contrast to perspectives dominating transitional justice research and analyses and a myth-shattering contribution to this field . . . It is exemplary for its nuanced perspective and detail, and this is exactly the quality that makes it myth shattering." (American Journal of Sociology) "Utilizing an effective and critical combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, Roman David presents the first comprehensive case study of a postconflict or postrepression country that goes beyond description and platitudes." (Harvey M. Weinstein, University of California, Berkeley) "Roman David interviewed communists and political prisoners-two groups whose experiences are vital to understanding both the communist regime and the democratic responses to it. Communists and Their Victims is a valuable and important contribution." (Nadya Nedelsky, Macalester College)

• PrefaceList of AcronymsIntroductionPART I. HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLEGAL CONTEXTChapter 1. The Communist Regime in Czechoslovakia: Were People Coerced?Chapter 2. Justice After Transition: Retributive, Revelatory, Reparatory, and Reconciliatory MeasuresPART II. JUSTICE AT THE POLES OF SOCIETYChapter 3. Did Justice Measures Heal Victims? Compensation, Truth, and Reconciliation in the Lives of Political PrisonersChapter 4. Did Justice Measures Transform Communists? Personal and Intergenerational TransformationPART III. JUSTICE IN A POLARIZED SOCIETYChapter 5. Could Justice Measures Transform the Divided Society? Experimental Evidence About Justice and ReconciliationChapter 6. Did Justice Measures Transform the Divided Society? Class and Ideological DividesConclusion: From Observations to the Transformative Theory of JusticeNotesBibliographyIndexAcknowledgments