Settling Accounts: Violence, Justice, and Accountability in Postsocialist Europe
()
About this ebook
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.
Read more from John Borneman
Cruel Attachments: The Ritual Rehab of Child Molesters in Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSyrian Episodes: Sons, Fathers, and an Anthropologist in Aleppo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comparing Impossibilities: Selected Essays of Sally Falk Moore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Settling Accounts
Related ebooks
The Mirror of Justice: Literary Reflections of Legal Crises Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLawyers and Justice: An Ethical Study Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconciliation, Civil Society, and the Politics of Memory: Transnational Initiatives in the 20th and 21st Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Peacemaking Approach to Criminology: A Collection of Writings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnderstanding the Age of Transitional Justice: Crimes, Courts, Commissions, and Chronicling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Crimes Against Humanity: Birth of a concept Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Theological Basis of Liberal Modernity in Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTheories of Justice: A Treatise on Social Justice, Vol. 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truth Commissions: Memory, Power, and Legitimacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Politics of Informal Justice: Volume 2: Comparative Studies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPunishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe State and the Rule of Law Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Greece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inherence of Human Dignity: Law and Religious Liberty, Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorporate Social Responsibility?: Human Rights in the New Global Economy Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Power and Principle: The Politics of International Criminal Courts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Borders of Justice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Retaliation: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of a Basic Human Condition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrime and Justice, Volume 50: A Review of Research Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustice: Rights and Wrongs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Corruption: Anthropological Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnarchy and Anarchists: Communism, Socialismism in Doctrine and in Deed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeople Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rule of Law Under Siege: Selected Essays of Franz L. Neumann and Otto Kirchheimer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChanging Concepts of Crime and Its Treatment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inherence of Human Dignity: Foundations of Human Dignity, Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUniversal Human Rights in Theory and Practice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Anthropology For You
How to Survive in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the American People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way of the Shaman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermined America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Body Language Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future---Updated With a New Epilogue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stories of Rootworkers & Hoodoo in the Mid-South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Regarding the Pain of Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Trails: An Exploration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Settling Accounts
0 ratings0 reviews