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.
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