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Examining the complex nature of state apologies for past injustices, this probes the various functions they fulfil within contemporary democracies. Cutting-edge theoretical and empirical research and insightful philosophical analyses are supplemented by real-life case studies, providing a normative and balanced account of states saying ´sorry´.

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1. Introduction; Mihaela Mihai and Mathias Thaler PART I: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS 2. Beyond the Ideal Political Apology; Alice MacLachlan 3. Political Apologies and Categorical Apologies; Nick Smith PART II: RITES AND RITUALS OF REGRET 4. From Mea Culpa to Nostra Culpa: A Reparative Apology from the Catholic Church?; Danielle Celemajer 5. The Power of Ritual Ceremonies in State Apologies: An Empirical Analysis of the Bilateral Polish-Russian Commemoration Ceremony in Katyn in 2010; Michel-Andre Horelt 6. Confessing the Holocaust: The Evolution of German Guilt; Stefan Engert PART III CHALLENGING CASES 7. Revisiting the ´Membership Theory of Apologies´: Apology Politics in Australia and Canada; Melissa Nobles 8. The Canadian Apology to Indigenous Residential School Survivors: A Case Study of Re-Negotiation of Social Relations; Neil Funk-Unrau 9. What Makes a State Apology Authoritative? Lessons from Post-Authoritarian Brazil; Nina Schneider PART IV: OBSTACLES AND LIMITATIONS 10. The Apology in Democracies: Reflections on the Challenges of Competing Goods, Citizenship, Nationalism and Pluralist Politics; Michael Cunningham 11. An Apology for Public Apologies; Juan Espindola 12. Reasoning Like a State: Integration and the Limits of Official Regret; Cindy Holder

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´This outstanding collection delivers on its title, going straight to what is specifically political in political apologies and showing how political apologies can be better or worse. These concise and vibrant essays, threaded throughout with concrete and timely examples, break through commonplaces to new insight and theory. This book is essential for those concerned with the practice or the theory of apology in the political realm and with the role of apology in societies dealing with the past.´ - Margaret Urban Walker, Donald J. Schuenke Chair in Philosophy, Marquette University, USA

´In an age of ´meae culpae", On the Uses and Abuses of Political Apologies provides a theoretically rich and clear-eyed critique of the motivations behind official acts of regret and the meaning, if any, that victims of state violence derive from them. Are state apologies a ´smoke screen´ for obscuring the political will to hold perpetrators accountable and compensate victims? Or can they provide a tangible and visible expression of official acknowledgement and change? This book delivers poignant insights into this conundrum-both ominous and hopeful.´ - Eric Stover is Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and the author of The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague

´This volume explores some of the conundrums and complexities of the political apology. By examining cases arising in a number of national contexts, it provides a valuable contribution to the vibrant debate over the usefulness of apologies for past political misdeeds. Anyone examining this area will have to wrestle with it.´ - John Torpey, Professor of Sociology, The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, USA.

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