The apology in democracies: reflections on the challenge of competing goods, citizenship, nationalism and pluralist politics

Abstract

Much of the literature related to the issue of the political apology has focused on one of three areas; attempts to provide a definition of what a ‘real’ or genuine apology looks like and what criteria have to be satisfied to provide one, normative defences of the apology as contributing to various desirable outcomes (e.g. recognition, reconciliation, justice) and the grappling with issues such as collective or transgenerational responsibility, which underpin the coherence of the apology.