Proposing Truth: Unpacking Agenda Setting in U.S. Truth Commissions

• In Event: Transitional Justice in the United States

Abstract

Truth commissions are widely used by countries to address past political violence and are increasingly being adopted by democracies and at the sub-national level. In the United States, an overlooked but important transitional justice setting, we see the convergence of these two trends, with 19 past, present, and proposed truth commissions, the majority of which are at the subnational level, and many of which followed widespread racial justice protests in 2020. This paper seeks to understand the agenda-setting process behind these commissions, i.e., why these commissions are established and why they are designed as they are. Leveraging a public opinion survey, elite interviews, and an original dataset of U.S. truth commission mandates, we explain truth commission agenda setting in the United States.

Authors

• Daniel Karsten Posthumus, International Justice Lab, Global Research Institute

• Kelebogile Zvobgo, College of William & Mary

• Zoha Yasmin Siddiqui, William & Mary