“Silent Lustration”: Public Disclosures as Informal Lustration Mechanisms in Bulgaria and Romania

Abstract

Romania and Bulgaria have lagged behind other countries in Central and Eastern Europe in coming to terms with their communist pasts, thwarting or failing to implement lustration and public disclosure programs. However, starting in earnest in 2006–2008, their secret police file repository agencies began reviewing the former secret police files of tens of thousands of public and semi-public employees and publicly disclosing the findings. The disclosures cover a range of political and social positions, revealing the former regime complicity of many current bureaucrats, business leaders, office holders, and public personalities. There is evidence that the disclosures are catalyzing bureaucratic and moral changes similar to lustration, prompting preemptive employment vetting by employers, selective voluntary resignations by individuals to avoid disclosure, as well as an increase in citizen engagement with the secret police files. The breadth and transparency of the public disclosures suggest a type of informal lustration.