“Transitional Justice after Clean Breaks adds to the list of nuanced country-level studies, such as those on Germany, Romania, and the Czech Republic, which are theory-driven and have a comparative reach. As the first third-way democracy that launched the process of dealing with the past, Portugal is a unique research site that was not contaminated by transitional justice blueprints.”
— Roman David, Lingnan University
“The book, written from a political science perspective, scrutinizes how Portugal dealt with its past in a comparative perspective. It is rich in detail about the history of the dictatorship as well as the process that came in its aftermath. The book suggests how the process of dealing with the past was done in a way to allow the society to heal and move forward. Important is the notion of state rupture or a clean break with the past, as well as public attitudes on a range of matters. This makes the book even more rich in its dealing with the Portuguese democratic model, that, it argues, has been characterized by fragmentation, volatility, and polarization. The book focuses on several themes including prosecutions, political party exclusions from the political process, the truth commission (seemingly one of the first in the world) and politics in the wake of the events that occurred. This is a book worth reading if you are interested in transitional justice, as well as the history and making of modern-day Portugal.”
— Jeremy Sarkin, NOVA University
“This is the book that many of us have been waiting for decades to see: the definitive study of transitional justice (TJ) in Portugal, in all its originality and complexity. The authors not only present novel information about TJ practices in Portugal but also use the case to advance theory.”
— Kathryn Sikkink, Harvard University