Vyrovnávanie sa s minulosťou v Portugalsku a na Slovensku: dve strany jednej mince
Coming to Terms with Past in Portugal and Slovakia: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Summary/Abstract: Transitional justice is relatively young field of comparative social sciences but it managed to attract considerable scholarly attention. Samuel Huntington’s Third Wave is often mentioned as one of the most important titles related to how countries deal with former oppressor. Influence of this book, and specifically its chapter The Torturer Problem, lies in precise analysis of previously used patterns and then ongoing processes in Central-East Europe. Huntington argued that there are basically two models how new governments react to the recent thorny past – prosecute /remember/ and punish vs. forgive and forget. The flaw of this dichotomy is – paradoxically – precisely in what once was its greatest merit: the time of publication of Third Wave (1991) in relation to the swift development in postcommunist world. The changes were, as it later became obvious, not only substantial, deep and extensive but also dynamic, evolving and often contradictory. Thus what at the beginning seemed to be an example of amnesty or even amnesia initiated by political elites has in few years turned to something very different but at the same time not antithetical. Similarly, once extensive approach could be very quickly attenuated. Therefore the quest for additional ideal types seems useful as those of Huntington are merely two poles of available spectrum. Describing two other models of transitional justice scenarios on the examples of Portugal and Slovakia is the core of this study. I suggest that it may be plausible to use the categories such as “remember and not punish” and “punish and forget”.

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