Beyond the Binary of Exogenous and Endogenous Transitions: International Actors and Transitional Justice in Georgia

Abstract

“Democratic transitional justice is almost as old as democracy itself,” points out Jon Elster.1 Examples of transitional justice are available from history as early as ancient Greece.2 Elster distinguishes between exogenous and endogenous transitional justice, “the process of transitional justice may be either initiated by the new regime or carried out under the supervision of foreign power.”3 The distinction between exogenous and endogenous transitional justice processes is now widely accepted in transitional justice scholarship.4 For example, Peter Boettke and Christopher Coyne draw on this binary. In defining the terms used in the article Political Economy of Forgiveness, they assert that endogenous transitional justice implies “the administration of justice by indigenous citizens within the transition country.”5 Exogenous transitional justice involves “external, international actors in the administration of justice.”6