The relationship between Transitional Justice and Corruption: A Cross-National Analysis
P2-04
Presented by: Dilan Gunes, Francisca Castro
Transitional justice (TJ) procedures are at the center of atonement efforts after critical periods of conflict and violations of political, civic, or human rights. Can the implementation of TJ procedures change individual opinions on the political regime? In this paper, we examine the effect of the deployment of TJ mechanisms in post-conflict and post-transitional countries on public opinion regarding the level of corruption within their country and their trust in the government. Additionally, we explore if there are differentiated effects on individual attitudes depending on the type of TJ procedure (amnesties, reparations, trials, truth commissions, and vetting/lustrations). Using panel data for 179 countries that went through political conflicts or regime transitions from 1946 to 2020, we estimated models to capture the effect of implementing TJ over individual attitudes. We find that TJ procedures contribute to lowering the perception of corruption. However, we do not find evidence that supports that specific types of TJ procedures have a differentiated effect on public opinion.