Communities of memory: on identity, memory, and debt

In: American political science review, Band 93, Heft 2, S. 249-263

Abstract

I take up the question of political identity as the continuity of a community across time. In particular, I examine what it means to think of a political community as the subject of attribution across generations, that is what is meant when it is made the bearer of responsibility for the past and a custodian of the future. In doing that, I focus on identity, memory, and responsibility and discuss that cluster of concepts using as an illustrative example the idea of constitutional patriotism and its relationship to the past. (American Political Science Review / FUB)