ABSTRACT
The citizens of a transitional democracy may decide that they were originally mistaken. Consequently, within a few months, the oligarchy collapsed and the democrats regained control of Athens, thus facing their first problem of transitional justice. The solution to Athenian democracys second problem of transitional justice within a decade was imposed on it from the outside. Even though contemporary transitional democracies don't have mass juries, they do seem to often have active civil society organizations. Transitional democracies should establish the rule of law, and build institutions to enable the masses to signal their willingness to uphold the law, even against their own short-run political preferences. Additionally, the literature on transitional justice should pay less attention to the perennial tension between reconciliation and punishment, and more to the institutiols that allow democracies to effectuate their newfound rule. Dyzenhaus has, drawing from Hobbes, has suggested that a function of transitional justice is to provide a civic education in the rule of law.
