Reconciliation, Politics of, and Excluded Groups

Reconciliation is a contested term with various and sometimes conflicting meanings. However, it is generally agreed that one of its key and most fundamental components is confronting past injustices. The attempt to come to terms with past injustices becomes even more challenging in the context of ethno/national/cultural/religious diversity. After briefly presenting the background against which the recent prominence of the politics of reconciliation in consolidated democracies should be understood, this entry presents and explores historical exclusion and major claims and types of reconciliation. The entry concludes with an exhibition of a typology that might prove useful to navigate through the different meanings, layers, and aspects of reconciliation. Because of the importance of reconciliation in resolving ethnic conflicts and facilitating the incorporation of minoritized groups into ...