Memory and democracy: toward a transformative relationship

Abstract

Institutional, territorial and symbolic markers linked to recent violent and repressive pasts are multiplying in the contemporary world. They are markers promoted by diverse social actors and movements, as well as by public policies that respond to the demands of these social actors. Justifications are multiple: from individual and group processes to beliefs and arguments that refer to a societal 'duty to remember' and its link to the construction of more democratic and less violent futures. The emphasis is, in this case, on legacies and the transmission to new generations to what can be referred to as the 'pedagogical' dimension of memory. This chapter discusses critically some of the assumptions that are taken for granted when talking about the 'duty to remember': the relationship between memory and justice, that between memory and democracy, the relationship between preservation, conservation and transmission. In analysing these relationships, the theme of memory is placed within broader structures and social processes, linked to the persistence of multiple social inequalities and to the relationship between memory and current and future-oriented transformative practices. To introduce such issues, this chapter analyses the way memories of political violence and repression after political transitions intervene in shaping societal transformations in different arenas: building democratic institutions and State practices, cultural changes involving a broad understanding of basic human rights, and moving beyond a focus on victims and a politics of victimhood, to support the creation of active citizens. The analysis is based on the experience of some Latin American countries in recent decades, in the framework of international and comparative considerations.