Transcending the Ghosts of the Past: The Role of the Academic Community in Establishment of the 1980s Democratic “Consensus” in Spain, Argentina, and Chile

The article explores the role historians, political scientists, and sociologists, played during the 1980s within the framework of the debate over the necessity of retrospective justice making in times of democratic transitions. It was within this context, also known as the democratizations of the “third wave,” that the academic community at large, and historians in particular, were given a unique position to address the legacies of authoritarianism and reflect on the actions needed for a successful democratic transition. By focusing on both western and Latin American historians - Hugh Thomas, Ricardo de la Cierva, Javier Tusell, Tulio Halperín Donghi, and Shlomo Ben Ami to name but a few - the article underscores the importance of these historians for the configuration of the 1980s model of “transitions by consensus.” Publishing in the public sphere as well as upon international platforms such as the Economic commission for Latin America (CEPAL), Institute for Iberoamerican cooperation (ICI), Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and UNESCO, these men, I argue, had a conspicuous role in minimalizing the debate over the need for mechanisms of transitional justice, prioritizing instead debates over the reduction of economic inequality and the creation of devices for preventing human rights violations. Moreover, the article maintains that the 1980s democratic “consensus” was established upon historiographic notions by which “pardoning” of the perpetrator was to have a positive effect on the formation of a national solidarity and thus prevent the fall of society into yet another “civil war.”