Schaap, Andrew

2018-01-31T11:37:03Z

2018-01-31T11:37:03Z

2003

In this study in political theory I develop a political conception of reconciliation. In the late twentieth century, the concept of reconciliation became prominent in the political discourse of many polities divided by grave state wrongs. Reconciliation is an inherently political aspiration since it invokes a "we" to underwrite the legitimacy of shared public institutions. Yet the logic of reconciliation, which tends toward harmony and closure, also seems at odds with politics, which invariably entails plurality and conflict.

The work of Carl Schmitt provides a point of departure for considering the political nature of reconciliation and defining the problem of how a relation of enmity might be transformed into one of civic friendship. In the first half of this thesis I consider the liberal ideal of toleration (as articulated by John Locke) and the communitarian ideal of recognition (as articulated by Charles Taylor) as political ethics that might animate reconciliation. Against toleration and recognition, I turn to Hannah Arendt's ethic of worldliness to develop a theory of political reconciliation. Reconciliation, on this account, entails a difficult mode of interaction between former enemies that seeks to enclose both within a common horizon of understanding while affirming the possibility of calling any such shared horizon into question.

In the second half of the thesis, I draw on the interdisciplinary literature surrounding transitional justice to develop this theory of political reconciliation. I consider the implications of Arendt's ethic of worldliness (outlined in the first half of the thesis) for how we should think about four key issues confronting societies divided by past wrongs: the constitution of a political association that might accommodate former enemies; political grounds for forgiveness; the collective responsibility of those implicated in state wrongs and; coming to terms with the past through remembrance of these wrongs.

Two central arguments recur throughout the thesis. First, we should affirm reconciliation as an aspiration that sustains politics by framing an encounter between enemies in which they might debate the possibility and terms of their association. Yet, we must also invoke politics to resist the tendency inherent in the logic of reconciliation to bring to a close what should remain open, incomplete, contestable. Second, and following from this, in conceiving reconciliation politically we must reverse the order of our moral thinking. It is a political mistake to presuppose a common moral community that must be restored between those alienated by past wrongs. Political reconciliation would never get off the ground if it required agreement on shared norms and the nature of wrongdoing in order to initiate the 'return' of the wrongdoers to community with those wronged. Rather, it must begin with the constitution of a space for politics through the invocation of a "we" and proceed from this faith in a community that is not yet toward the possibility of a shared understanding of what went before.

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/27349

The University of Edinburgh

Annexe Thesis Digitisation Project 2017 Block 16

Already catalogued

Political reconciliation

Thesis or Dissertation

PhD Doctor of Philosophy