Policing politics: framing the past in post-conflict divided societies

Political parties matter: a research agenda on interactions among elites in post-conflict democracies

“…13. The 'state-sponsored denial' of the genocide in Srebrenica is a relevant example (McGrattan, 2014). 14.…”

“…Moreover, some authors have focused on the types of 'effective frames' adopted by 'successful outbidders' (Moore et al, 2014, p. 159) to exploit the fears of their communities while identifying strategies and opportunities for redressing these grievances. Others have examined the rhetoric of elites and the strategic use of religious (Bunte & Vinson, 2016) or historical narratives (McGrattan, 2014) to mobilize the followers or to reframe the past after conflicts. Nonetheless, the above-mentioned studies have mainly investigated elites' frames and narratives concerning transitional justice or electoral rhetoric.…”

Transitional justice as social control: political transitions, human rights norms and the reclassification of the past

“…Impunity – the failure to punish perpetrators – is but one manifestation of denial, which is manifested also in the failure to compensate victims, recognize the truth or reform institutions. The attempt to reframe past events and the struggle over ‘how the past and those acts are explained and understood in the present’ (McGrattan : 390) is the key issue in transitional societies; prosecution, truth‐recovery, amnesties or compensation are tools in this broader effort.…”

“…However, such cases are relatively uncommon: in many and perhaps most other cases transitional regimes have to address interpretative and implicatory denials. In the ‘policing of the past’ (Cohen ) the challenge is not so much finding out new details and facts, but altering how events and policies are socially understood, by inscribing known events with new meaning (McGrattan : 391). The essence of transitional justice is reshaping collective memory of past atrocities (Osiel ) – the ‘creative imagining of the past in the service of the present and an imagined future’ (Misztal : 103) – through reinterpreting, not just uncovering, past events.…”

Social Immobility, Ethno-politics, and Sectarian Violence: Obstacles to Post-conflict Reconstruction in Northern Ireland

“…Such research, by focusing primarily on constituencies' voting behaviors, is one example of how conventional political science approaches in analysis of political reconstruction is likely to downplay or minimize the more preeminent actions of political leaders in the construction of division. At the same time, there is evidence that challenges the stipulation that polarized ethno-political elite have prioritized cooperation in the moderation of policy, as implied by some, or that, like most post-conflict societiessupposedly -an increase in power leads to a transition from focus on cultural symbols of division to discursive and legislative concern with issues of economic and social development (McGrattan 2014). It is far from apparent that unionists or nationalists more generally have become more moderate in their policy preferences, especially regarding ethno-cultural issues underscoring Northern Ireland's "culture wars" (Noble 2013;Nolan 2014), or that greater power among traditional, hardline ethnocentric parties has led them to prioritize issues of development and downplay emphasis on cultural symbols (McGrattan 2014).…”