TY - BOOK ID - 77901493 TI - Settling accounts PY - 1997 SN - 1400822343 9786612753299 1282753290 1400811090 9781400811090 9781400822348 9780691016818 069101681X 9780691016825 0691016828 0691016828 069101681X PB - Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press DB - UniCat KW - Social justice KW - Retribution. KW - Political crimes and offenses KW - Reparation (Criminal justice) KW - Rule of law KW - Post-communism KW - Equality KW - Justice KW - Social exchange KW - Punishment KW - Revenge KW - Offenses against the State KW - Offenses, Political KW - Political offenses KW - State, Offenses against the KW - Crime KW - Extradition KW - Political violence KW - Subversive activities KW - Compensation for victims of crime KW - Criminal restitution KW - Reparation KW - Restitution (Criminal justice) KW - Restitution for victims of crime KW - Remedies (Law) KW - Supremacy of law KW - Administrative law KW - Constitutional law KW - Europe, Eastern KW - Politics and government KW - Social policy. KW - Retribution KW - Social policy KW - Post-communism - Europe, Eastern KW - Rule of law - Europe, Eastern KW - Reparation (Criminal justice) - Europe, Eastern KW - Political crimes and offenses - Europe, Eastern KW - Social justice - Europe, Eastern KW - Europe, Eastern - Social policy KW - Europe, Eastern - Politics and government - 1989 KW - -Social justice KW - -Post-communism UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77901493 AB - As new states in the former East bloc begin to reckon with their criminal pasts in the years following a revolutionary change of regimes, a basic pattern emerges: In those states where some form of retributive justice has been publicly enacted, there has generally been much less of a recourse to collective retributive violence. In Settling Accounts, John Borneman explores the attempts by these aspiring democratic states to invoke the principles of the "rule of law" as a means of achieving retributive justice, that is, convicting wrongdoers and restoring dignity to victims of moral injuries. Democratic regimes, Borneman maintains, require a strict form of accountability that holds leaders responsible for acts of criminality. This accountability is embodied in the principles of the rule of law, and retribution is at the moral center of these principles. Drawing from his ethnographic work in the former East Germany and with select comparisons to other East-Central European states, Borneman critically examines the construction of categories of criminality. He argues against the claims that economic growth, liberal democracy, or acts of reconciliation are adequate means to legitimate the transformed East bloc states. The cycles of violence in states lacking a system of retributive justice help to support this claim. Invocation of the principles of the rule of law must be seen as a chance for a more democratic, more accountable, and less violent world. ER -