Concluding thoughts
References
Bringing together these different ( and sometimes clashing ) elements of democratic memory suggests some important points that warrant further consideration and research . For one thing , it is clear that if our objective is to create deeply democratic societies with a vibrant and critical approach to the past , the process of remembering how societal majorities and various interests are symbolically represented or changed over time matters just as much as the content of public memory . Second , memory is never set in stone as “ democratic ” because it can never operate in isolation and must always be understood in relation to the transformation of society and its historical discourses . This is because the narratives about the past that support democratic norms changes over time . Even when a dominant public memory was the outcome of a democratising process ( as was the case in West Germany ), this does not mean that we can stop thinking about how to engage the public in that memory . For example , today there is an urgent need to address how German memory culture can reckon with histories of colonialism and racism and speak to an increasingly multi-cultural and multi-past population . Finally , and maybe most importantly , democratic memory per se does not prevent violence against minorities or discrimination . As statistics in Germany show , the very strong position and support for remembering the Holocaust does not mean that racist , anti-Semitic , transphobic etc . attacks do not happen at an alarming rate . These ideas of course do not provide prescriptions for how to design memory policies that support democratic consolidation , but they do offer the beginnings of a framework for thinking through the complex relationship between memory and democracy in different local , national and transnational settings .
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Gensburger , S . and Lefranc , S . ( 2020 ) Beyond Memory . Can We Really Learn From the Past ? Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan .
Gensburger , S . and Wüstenberg , J . ( 2023 ) De-Commemoration . Removing Statues and Renaming Places . New York : Berghahn .
Herf , J . ( 1997 ) Divided Memory - The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys . Cambridge : Harvard University Press .
Iturriaga , N . ( 2019 ) " The evolution of the grandmothers of Plaza De Mayo ' s mnemonic framing " in Mobilization : An International Quarterly 24 ( 4 ): 475-492 .
Jelin , E . ( 2021 ) The Struggle for the Past . How We Construct Social Memories . New York : Berghahn .
Levi , S . and Probulus , K . ( 2023 ) " The Role of Nonprofits in De- Commemoration : The Southern Poverty Law Center ’ s Whose Heritage ? Report " in : Gensburger S and Wüstenberg J ( eds ) De- Commemoration . Removing Statues and Renaming Places . New York : Berghahn .
Levitsky , S . and Ziblatt , D . ( 2018 ) How Democracies Die : What History Reveals About Our Future . New York : Penguin Random House .
Pisanty , V . ( 2021 ) The Guardians of Memory and the Return of the Xenophobic Right . New York : Primo Levi Center .
Putnam , R . ( 1993 ) Making Democracy Work . Princeton : Princeton University Press .
Sa ' adah , A . ( 1998 ) Germany ' s second chance : trust , justice , and democratization . Cambridge : Harvard University Press . Tocqueville , A . de ( 1954 ) Democracy in America . New York : Vintage Books . Wüstenberg , J . ( 2017 ) Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany .
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .
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