Research framework and broader academic knowledge base
Serbia: documented application of the same framework
How can abuses be punished and institutions rebuilt after authoritarian rule without creating a new injustice?
After the authoritarian government, it is necessary to establish personal responsibility at the same time, recognize the victims and build institutions that will not repeat the old arbitrariness. Trials can punish concrete crimes, commissions determine the wider truth, compensations help victims, and check personnel to remove people who have abused the function.
Every measure, however, must have a pre-recognized legal basis, individual evidence, independent procedure and the possibility of appeal. Collective guilt and political lists easily turn renewal into revenge and teach the new government that it can decide without borders. There is no single measure that simultaneously gives all truth, justice, peace and competent administration. Therefore, the goals must be publicly measured, the actions of the old are verifiable, and the limitations of the new government are equally important.
Research finds both successes and disappointments. Punishment, truth, peace, victims’ rights and stable institutions cannot always be achieved with the same measure and at the same time.
Works supporting this answer, with their evidence type and an explanation of how they relate to the claim.
critical review of more research
Vinjamuri, L. i Snyder, J. (2015), „Law and Politics in Transitional Justice“, Annual Review of Political Science 18: 303–327.
- Contribution to this answer
- Vinjamuri and Snyder show why there is no simple formula “just apply the law to all the culprits”: trials and other forms of responsibility arise at a time when the legal requirement for justice must function within very real political relations of forces. The policy therefore affects who will be held accountable, what measures will be possible and what consequences they will have.
review more research
Bakiner, O. (2021), „Truth Commission Impact on Policy, Courts, and Society“, Annual Review of Law and Social Science 17: 73–91.
- Contribution to this answer
- Bakiner shows why the Truth Commission is not an automatic solution either: research finds everything from real changes in laws, courts and social norms to serious failures. The result depends on what politicians, institutions and civil society do after the report but also on what we consider the “success” of transitional justice.
comparing several countries or cases
González, Y. M. (2020), Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America, Cambridge University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- González shows why responsibility for the past is not enough if the institution itself does not change: the police can transfer authoritarian practices to a new democracy decades after the fall of the regime. Reform must therefore change power relations, political incentives and the way the organization works, and not just replace a few people at the top.
comparing several countries or cases
O’Donnell, G. i Schmitter, P. C. (1986), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies, Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Contribution to this answer
- O’Donnell and Schmitter remind why all this is happening at a politically very sensitive time: the exit from authoritarianism takes place through uncertainty, negotiation and power relations between actors of the old and the new order. This is an important framework for understanding the limitations of transitional justice, but the book is not an immediate study of punishing abuses or restoring institutions.
comparison of different combinations of conditions
Panzano, G. i Tomini, L. (2026), „Unity Makes Strength: Patterns of Democratic Resistance against Autocratization“, European Journal of Political Research, First View: 1–26.
- Contribution to this answer
- Panzano and Tomini are too far apart from the specific issue here: their work studies how different combinations of institutional, political, social and external resistance help democracies survive an attempt at autocracy. It is an important work on the defense of democracy, but not on transitional justice or the restoration of institutions after the fall of authoritarian power.
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