Lustration is an instrument used in many states that are going through transitional justice to ma... more Lustration is an instrument used in many states that are going through transitional justice to make a break with the past. However, the scope and extent of lustration vary massively, even in countries in close proximity to each other and with similar pathways of transitional justice. Within Central Europe, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia constitute the Visegrád 4 (V4), four countries that all dealt with transitional justice in a post-communist sense. This research sets out to understand how lustration laws were implemented in diverse ways within the V4, by analysing the breakdown of Communism, the technicalities of the implemented lustration laws by scope, timing, and political actors, and the nature of the lustration system (retributive vs. restorative justice). Through making this analysis of four different cases, an assessment will be made to see if enough commonalities will be found to establish a concept of Visegrád post-communist transitional justice.
In the Slovak Republic’s tumultuous 1990’s it is easy to lose sight of more vulnerable groups in ... more In the Slovak Republic’s tumultuous 1990’s it is easy to lose sight of more vulnerable groups in society. The Hungarian minority of the newly established republic viewed the Velvet Split with suspicion, mainly regarding their own position in a newly formed Slovak led society. This thesis addresses the position of the Hungarian minority in an independent Slovakia and attempts to demonstrate how the discrimination of Hungarians was used to stimulate the building of a Slovak national identity. The focus will be on the contrast between two laws of Vladimír Mečiar’s third and last government (1994-1998) and their amended versions of the first Mikuláš Dzurinda cabinet (1998-2002). These two cabinet terms were formative in the newly independent Slovak Republic, as it was for the first time sovereignly in charge of its own minority politics. The premise of this thesis is that the last Mečiar cabinet was discriminatory in such a way that the revisions of the Dzurinda cabinet were inefficient to provide full long-term minority protection. The first law that will be discussed focuses on the use of a state language and its suppression of minority languages; the analysis of the second law demonstrates the ineffective redrawing of regional borders to unfairly impact minorities.
For decades, Germany and its imperialism were blamed as the driving force behind the escalation o... more For decades, Germany and its imperialism were blamed as the driving force behind the escalation of “just another Balkan war” into a massive war of global proportions. In this essay however, another point of view shall be examined and explored. The Austrian role in the initiation of the First World War was much larger than initially conceptualised. It were Austrian politicians who pushed to attack Serbia, and they subsequently nudged Germany to back them up. The position that will be taken in this essay is that it was Austrian fear of Serbian nationalism that caused the First World War.
Lustration is an instrument used in many states that are going through transitional justice to ma... more Lustration is an instrument used in many states that are going through transitional justice to make a break with the past. However, the scope and extent of lustration vary massively, even in countries in close proximity to each other and with similar pathways of transitional justice. Within Central Europe, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia constitute the Visegrád 4 (V4), four countries that all dealt with transitional justice in a post-communist sense. This research sets out to understand how lustration laws were implemented in diverse ways within the V4, by analysing the breakdown of Communism, the technicalities of the implemented lustration laws by scope, timing, and political actors, and the nature of the lustration system (retributive vs. restorative justice). Through making this analysis of four different cases, an assessment will be made to see if enough commonalities will be found to establish a concept of Visegrád post-communist transitional justice.
In the Slovak Republic’s tumultuous 1990’s it is easy to lose sight of more vulnerable groups in ... more In the Slovak Republic’s tumultuous 1990’s it is easy to lose sight of more vulnerable groups in society. The Hungarian minority of the newly established republic viewed the Velvet Split with suspicion, mainly regarding their own position in a newly formed Slovak led society. This thesis addresses the position of the Hungarian minority in an independent Slovakia and attempts to demonstrate how the discrimination of Hungarians was used to stimulate the building of a Slovak national identity. The focus will be on the contrast between two laws of Vladimír Mečiar’s third and last government (1994-1998) and their amended versions of the first Mikuláš Dzurinda cabinet (1998-2002). These two cabinet terms were formative in the newly independent Slovak Republic, as it was for the first time sovereignly in charge of its own minority politics. The premise of this thesis is that the last Mečiar cabinet was discriminatory in such a way that the revisions of the Dzurinda cabinet were inefficient to provide full long-term minority protection. The first law that will be discussed focuses on the use of a state language and its suppression of minority languages; the analysis of the second law demonstrates the ineffective redrawing of regional borders to unfairly impact minorities.
For decades, Germany and its imperialism were blamed as the driving force behind the escalation o... more For decades, Germany and its imperialism were blamed as the driving force behind the escalation of “just another Balkan war” into a massive war of global proportions. In this essay however, another point of view shall be examined and explored. The Austrian role in the initiation of the First World War was much larger than initially conceptualised. It were Austrian politicians who pushed to attack Serbia, and they subsequently nudged Germany to back them up. The position that will be taken in this essay is that it was Austrian fear of Serbian nationalism that caused the First World War.
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