ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the impetus for the revival of the lustration and file access issue came from the fact that the existing truth-revelation procedures were not felt to be functioning effectively, and from the Institute for National Remembrance’s revelations creating momentum around the issue. It examines how the issue was often linked with broader projects to improve the quality of democracy, driven by concerns about the public’s ‘right to know’ the backgrounds of its public representatives and the need to tackle corruption. Elites and officials linked to the former regime were felt to have taken advantage of their communist-era networks to turn old political power into new economic influence.
