Changing the State’s Story

This chapter introduces a conceptual framework with which to analyze official narratives of dark pasts, fleshes out the argument introduced in the previous chapter, and discusses the nature of change in states’ narratives. The conceptual framework consists of eight steps, ranging from silencing and denial to acknowledgment and on to commemoration, each of which captures a possible element of an official narrative. The core argument is that international pressures increase the likelihood of change in official narratives of dark pasts, while domestic considerations determine the content of such change. In particular, decisions about whether and how to respond to international pressures are contingent on four types of domestic considerations: material concerns, legitimacy and identity concerns, electoral-political concerns, and domestic contestation. Finally, the nature of change in states’ narratives is characterized by feedback effects and layering, and is typically incremental, multifaceted, and multivalent.