Hostname: page-component-6dbcb7884d-4kfsg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T19:19:48.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bachman, Ronet, Paternoster, Raymond, and Ward, Sally. 1992. ”The Rationality of Sexual Offending: Testing a Deterrence/Rational Choice Conception of Sexual Assault.” Law and Society Review 26 (2): 343–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burger, Jerry M. 1981. ”Motivational Biases in the Attribution of Responsibility for an Accident: A Meta Analysis of the Defensive Attribution Hypothesis.” Psychological Bulletin 90 (November): 496–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crittenden, Kathleen S., and Bae, Hyunjung. 1994. ”Self-Effacement and Social Responsibility: Attribution as Impression Management in Asian Cultures.” American Behavioral Scientist 37 (March): 653–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Stanley. 1985. ”Economic Self-interest and the Vote: Evidence and Meaning.” In Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes: The United States and Western Europe, ed. Eulau, Heinz and Lewis-Beck, Michael. New York: Agathon. Pp. 144–66.Google Scholar
Fincham, Frank D., and Jaspars, Joseph M. 1980. ”Attribution of Responsibility: From Man the Scientist to Man as Lawyer.” In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 13, ed. Berkowitz, Leonard. New York: Academic Press. Pp. 81–138.Google Scholar
Fincham, Frank D., and Roberts, Caton D. 1985. ”Intervening Causation and the Mitigation of Responsibility for Harm Doing: II. The Role of Limited Mental Capacities.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 21 (March): 178–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 1996a. ”‘A Mile Wide But an Inch Deep’(?): The Structure of Democratic Commitments in the Former USSR.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (May): 396–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 1996b. ”Political and Economic Markets: Changes in the Connections Between Attitudes Toward Political Democracy and a Market Economy within the Mass Culture of Russia and Ukraine.” Journal of Politics 58 (November): 954–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 1997. ”The Struggle between Order and Liberty in Contemporary Russian Political Culture.” Australian Journal of Political Science 32 (July): 271–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 1998. ”The Politics of Social Identity in South Africa.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April 23–26.Google Scholar
Gibson, James L., and Caldeira, Gregory A. 1996. ”The Legal Cultures of Europe.” Law and Society Review 30 (1): 55–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., and Caldeira, Gregory A. 1998. ”Changes in the Legitimacy of the European Court of Justice: A Post-Maastricht Analysis.” British Journal of Political Science 28 (January): 63–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giliomee, Hermann. 1995. ”Democratization in South Africa.” Political Science Quarterly 110 (Spring): 83–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzales, Marti Hope, Kovera, Margaret Bull, Sullivan, John L., and Chanley, Virginia. 1995. ”Private Reactions to Public Transgressions: Predictors of Evaluative Responses to Allegations of Political Misconduct.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21 (February): 136–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallman, William K., and Wandersman, Abraham. 1992. ”Attribution of Responsibility and Individual and Collective Coping with Environmental Threats.” Journal of Social Issues 48 (Winter): 101–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, V. Lee. 1986. ”Chains of Command: Responsibility Attribution in Hierarchies.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 16 (1):118–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, V. Lee, and Hagiwara, Shigeru. 1992. ”Roles Responsibility, and Accounts Across Cultures.” International Journal of Psychology 27 (April): 157–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, V. Lee, and Sanders, Joseph. 1992. Everyday Justice: Responsibility and the Individual in Japan and the United States. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, V. Lee, and Sanders, Joseph. 1995. ”Crimes of Obedience and Conformity in the Workplace: Surveys of Americans, Russians, and Japanese.” Journal of Social Issues 51 (Fall): 67–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. 1968. Punishment and Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayner, Priscilla B. 1994. ”Fifteen Truth Commissions—1974 to 1994: A Comparative Study.” Human Rights Quarterly 16 (November): 597–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto. 1991. Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, van Deth, Jan W., Barnes, Samuel H., Fuchs, Dieter, Heunks, Felix J., Inglehart, Ronald, Kaase, Max, Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, and Thomassen, Jacques J. A. 1989. Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies. New York and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Jung, Courtney, and Shapiro, Ian. 1995. ”South Africa's Negotiated Transition: Democracy, Opposition, and the New Constitutional Order.” Politics & Society 23 (September): 269–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaye, Mike. 1997. ”The Role of Truth Commissions in the Search for Justice, Reconciliation and Democratisation: The Salvadorean and Honduran Cases.” Journal of Latin American Studies 29 (October): 693–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Katherine T., and Campbell, James L. 1997. ”Attribution of Responsibility for Alcohol-Related Offenses.” Psychological Reports 80 (June): 1159–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelman, Herbert C., and Hamilton, V. Lee. 1989. Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R., and Smith, Eliot R. 1986. Beliefs about Inequality: Americans' Views of What Is and What Ought to Be. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Koelble, Thomas, and Reynolds, Andrew. 1996. ”Power-Sharing Democracy in the New South Africa.” Politics & Society 24 (September): 221–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, George E., Sullivan, John L., Theiss-Morse, Elizabeth, and Wood, Sandra L. 1995. With Malice Toward Some: How People Make Civil Liberties Judgments. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGraw, Kathleen M. 1987. ”Guilt Following Transgression: An Attribution of Responsibility Approach.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53 (August): 247–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGraw, Kathleen M. 1990. ”Avoiding Blame: An Experimental Investigation of Political Excuses and Justifications.” British Journal of Political Science 20 (January): 119–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGraw, Kathleen M. 1991. ”Managing Blame: An Experimental Test of the Effects of Political Accounts.” American Political Science Review 85 (December): 1133–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGraw, Kathleen M. 1996. ”Political Methodology: Research Design and Experimental Methods.” In A New Handbook of Political Science, ed. Goodin, Robert E. and Klingemann, Hans-Dieter. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 769–86.Google Scholar
Milgram, Stanley. 1974. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Ngidi, Sandile. 1998. ”Bitter Pill of Amnesty.” Siyaya! 3 (Spring): 24–5.Google Scholar
Omar, A. M. 1996. ”Forward.” In Confronting Past Injustices: Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, ed. Rwelamira, M. R. and Werle, G.Durban: Butterworths. Pp. vii–xii.Google Scholar
Osiel, Mark J. 1995. ”Ever Again: Legal Remembrance of Administrative Massacre.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 144 (December): 463–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peffley, Mark. 1985. ”The Vote as Juror: Attributing Responsibility for National Outcomes.” In Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes: The United States and Western Europe, ed. Eulau, Heinz and Lewis-Beck, Michael. New York: Agathon. Pp. 187–206.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Adam, Cheibub, Jose Antonio, and Limongi, Fernando. 1996. ”What Makes Democracies Endure.” Journal of Democracy 7 (1): 39–55.Google Scholar
Robinson, Paul H., and Darley, John M. 1995. Justice, Liability and Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Rwelamira, Medard R. 1996. ”Punishing Past Human Rights Violations: Considerations in the South African Context.” In Confronting Past Injustices: Approaches to Amnesty, Punishment, Reparation and Restitution in South Africa and Germany, ed. Rwelamira, M. R. and Werle, G.Durban: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Sanders, Joseph, and Hamilton, V. Lee. 1992. ”Legal Cultures and Punishment Repertoires in Japan, Russia, and the United States.” Law and Society Review 26 (1): 117–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, Joseph, and Hamilton, V. Lee. 1996. ”Distributing Responsibility for Wrongdoing Inside Corporate Hierarchies: Public Judgments in Three Societies.” Law and Social Inquiry 21 (Fall): 815–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlenker, Barry R., Britt, Thomas W., Pennington, John, Murphy, Rodolfo, and Doherty, Kevin. 1994. ”The Triangle Model of Responsibility.” Psychological Review 101 (October): 632–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, Ian, and Jung, Courtney. 1996. ”South African Democracy Revisited: A Reply to Koelble and Reynolds.” Politics & Society 24 (September): 237–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaver, Kelly G. 1985. The Attribution of Blame: Causality, Responsibility, and Blameworthiness. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Truth Commission: Intrepid Impartiality Vital for Tough Challenge.” 1996. Financial Mail. March 29. http://www.fm.co.za/96/290396/LA.3.html (accessed May 5, 1999).Google Scholar
Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 1998. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report. Cape Town: Juta.Google Scholar
Verwoerd, Wilhelm. 1997. “Justice after Apartheid? Reflections on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” Paper presented at the First International Conference on Ethics and Development, “Globalization, Self-Determination and Justice in Development,” Madras, India, 2–9 January.Google Scholar
Weaver, R. Kent. 1986. ”The Politics of Blame Avoidance.” Journal of Public Policy 6 (October-December): 371–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, Bernard. 1995. Judgments of Responsibility: A Foundation for a Theory of Social Conduct. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.