AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

The Democratisation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: The Influence of Transitional Justice and Europeanisation

by Anne Zachariassen




Institution: Roskilde University
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Slovakia; Czech Republic; Democracy; Transitional Justice; Europeanisation
Record ID: 1119966
Full text PDF: http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/22971


Abstract

After more than four decades under the totalitarian regime of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Velvet Revolution initiated democratisation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In a comparison of the two processes of transitional justice, this project analyses through a few case study method the respective transitional justice measures implemented in the two countries. The analysis is based on interviews and secondary empirical data in order to answer if transitional justice is important for democratisation. By investigating the transitional justice processes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the project concludes that transitional justice assists democratisations in situations where a regular regime shift has happened. In the case of continuity of the elite of the former regime, the diffusion of norms by the EU was more influential on democratisation.