Expansion of Transitional Justice: Its Causes and Impact - A Cross-National Statistical Analysis.

For the past three decades, more and more states experienced democratic transition. As states go through transitions, they are increasingly facing the issue of transitional justice ? a question of how to seek to address gross and systemic human rights violations committed by past regimes. The mechanisms of transitional justice vary across states including truth commissions, criminal prosecutions, amnesty, reparation, restitution, purge, lustration, and finally, doing nothing. In this study I focused on two major transitional justice measures ? trials and truth commissions. This study seeks to explain two questions by analyzing pooled time-series cross-sectional data set of 90 states between 1974 and 2004. First, why do some states seek to address gross and systemic human rights violations committed by former regimes in a certain way while others do not? Second, what is the impact of addressing past human rights violations and what differences do various transitional justice mechanisms make to the state and society? In answering first research question, I examined theories and hypotheses and subject them to empirical tests using event history analysis. I tested whether (1) level of repression, (2) region, (3) culture, (4) domestic group, (5) international pressure, (6) strength of outgoing regime, (7) political stability, (8) existence of alternative transitional justice measures have an effect on country?s decision to adopt trials and/or truth commissions. In answering second research question, I intend to examine the validity of four hypotheses that explain three national level impacts of transitional justice measures: impacts on (1) the recurrence of violence, (2) human rights violations, and (3) democratic consolidation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]