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Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Attributions of Blame and the Struggle over Apartheid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

James L. Gibson  and
Amanda Gouws
James L. Gibson
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis
Amanda Gouws
Affiliation:
University of Stellenbosch
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Abstract

In an effort to put its past firmly behind, the New South Africa created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document human rights abuses under apartheid and to grant amnesty to those confessing their nefarious deeds. South Africa's democratic experiment depends mightily upon whether truth does in fact bring about reconciliation. Consequently, we examine whether ordinary South Africans accept the theories of blame that underlie the truth and reconciliation process. Based on a formal experiment within a representative sample of South Africans, our results confirm some conventional hypotheses (e.g., leaders are judged more responsible for their deeds than followers), repudiate others (noble motives do little to exonerate violent actions), and modify still others (actors are judged by the severity of their action's consequences, although it matters little whether “combatants” or “civilians” were the victims). We conclude that the dark legacy of the apartheid past makes the consolidation of the democratic transformation problematical.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 93 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 501 - 517
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999

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