The Power of Ritual Ceremonies in State Apologies: An Empirical Analysis of the Bilateral Polish-Russian Commemoration Ceremony in Katyn in 2010

Abstract

In common parlance the terms ‘ritual’, ‘ceremony’ and ‘symbols’ have a bad reputation. Qualifiers such as ‘mere’, ‘just’ and ‘only’ are usually adjoined to all these terms, discrediting their meaning as modes of social action. We encounter negative conceptions of such actions, described as ‘only’ and ‘merely symbolic’ or ‘just’ a ‘ceremonial rehearsal’, lacking any political significance. The same holds true for the perception of rites and rituals in the study of public apologies. As Danielle Celermajer observes, the ‘qualifier “mere” is ubiquitous’.¹ On the one hand, state apologies are branded as ‘abortive rituals’² or late ‘modern rituals of repentance’³ stripped of any political significance. On the other hand, the performance of ‘a ceremonial apology without genuinely apologizing’ is seen as ‘one form in which apology has been politically miscarried over the years’.⁴ The dominant perception is that a ‘ritual apology is insincere and therefore meaningless’.⁵ Thus, in public opinion, as well as in the literature on public apologies, observers and social scientists tend to reduce the concept of ‘ritual’ to an insignificant, residual category.