The Politics of Official Apologies

215 Pages·2008·0.72 MB·English

by  Melissa Nobles

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ThePoliticsofOfficialApologies
Intense interest in past injustice lies at the center of contemporary
worldpolitics.Mostscholarlyandpublicattentionhasfocusedontruth
commissions, trials, lustration, and other related decisions, following
political transitions. This book examines the political uses of official
apologiesinAustralia,Canada,NewZealand,andtheUnitedStates.It
exploreswhyminoritygroupsdemandsuchapologiesandwhygovern-
mentsdoordonotofferthem.MelissaNoblesarguesthatapologiescan
help to alter the terms and meanings of national membership. Minor-
ity groups demand apologies in order to focus attention on historical
injustices,therectificationofwhich,theyargue,shouldguidechangesin
present-daygovernmentpolicies.Similarly,stateactorssupportapolo-
giesforideologicalandmoralreasons,drivenbytheirsupportofgroup
rights, responsiveness to group demands, and belief that acknowledg-
mentisdue.Apologies,asemployedbypoliticalactors,playanimpor-
tant, if underappreciated, role in bringing certain views about history
andmoralobligationtobearinpubliclife.
Melissa Nobles is an associate professor of political science at the
MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology.ProfessorNobles’teachingand
researchinterestsareinthecomparativestudyofracialandethnicpol-
itics and issues of retrospective justice. She is the author of Shades of
Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics (2000), which
receivedthe2001OutstandingBookAwardfromtheNationalConfer-
ence of Black Political Scientists, as well as honorable mention of the
RalphBuncheBookAwardfromtheAmericanPoliticalScienceAsso-
ciation. Nobles has been a Fellow at Boston University’s Institute on
RaceandSocialDivision(2000–1)andHarvardUniversity’sRadcliffe
CenterforAdvancedStudy(2003–4).
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The Politics of Official Apologies
MELISSA NOBLES
MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
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CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521872317
© Melissa Nobles 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2008
ISBN-13 978-0-511-37892-8 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-87231-7 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-69385-1 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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For Fritz
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Contents
PrefaceandAcknowledgments page ix
1 TowardaMembershipTheoryofApologies 1
2 HistoryofNationalMembershipsinAustralia,
Canada,NewZealand,andtheUnitedStates 42
3 ToApologizeorNottoApologize:National
HistoriesandOfficialApologies 71
4 BeyondSentiment?ApologiesandTheirEffects 112
5 TheWeightofHistoryandtheValueofApologies 139
Appendix:Twentieth-andTwenty-First-CenturyPublic
Apologies 155
Bibliography 167
Index 189
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Preface and Acknowledgments
The Turkish government’s insistence on denying the Armenian geno-
cide–specificallyarticle301ofTurkey’spenalcode,whichauthorities
haveusedtointerpretdiscussionofthegenocideasaninsultto“Turk-
ishness” – has garnered a great deal of attention here in the United
States and in Europe. The press, lawmakers, and political pundits
presentsuchTurkishinsistenceasexcessive,anassaultonfreespeech
and creative thought, and, most seriously, an assault on truth itself.
Indeed,inOctober2006,theFrenchAssemblypassedalawthatmakes
denialofthegenocideacrime,presumablytocounteractandhighlight
thewrongofTurkishhistoricalandmoraldenial.(Thelawmuststillbe
approved by the French Senate and president.) The press writes sym-
patheticallyofArmenians’desiretohavetheirstoriestoldandhistory
known.
If these collective reactions are to be believed, it is as if Turkey’s
behaviorissomehowincomprehensibletoEuropeansandAmericans.
ButcontinuingdebatesinFranceabouttheAlgerianWar,forexample,
or the deafening silence about the experiences of Native Americans
tell another story. Of course, most countries’ behaviors are far closer
to Turkey’s than they or we would care to admit. Governments and
citizenries have many reasons to ignore or deny historical injustices,
andtheyhavelongdoneso,inperhapsmoresubtlebutnolesseffective
ways than Turkey has. Like many aggrieved groups, Armenians have
longaskedforacknowledgmentandevenapology.Theirdemandsare
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