caa a22 4500 388078863 CHVBK 20180307125206.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199909 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/2585571 doi S0003055400218157 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/2585571 Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Attributions of Blame and the Struggle over Apartheid [Elektronische Daten] 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. Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999 Gibson James L. Washington University in St. Louis Gouws Amanda University of Stellenbosch American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 93/3(1999-09), 501-517 0003-0554 93:3<501 1999 93 PSR https://doi.org/10.2307/2585571 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/2585571 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gibson James L. Washington University in St. Louis NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gouws Amanda University of Stellenbosch NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- American Political Science Review Cambridge University Press 93/3(1999-09), 501-517 0003-0554 93:3<501 1999 93 PSR CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge