Confederate Symbols and Their Impact on U.S. Democratic Governance

The American Civil War ended more than 150 years ago, yet the divide over Confederate symbols persists. These include statues, monuments, flags, holidays and names of places, structures, and institutions. This thesis asks: To what extent does the deepening divide over Confederate symbols affect U.S. democratic governance? The thesis presents a comparative case study of the United States and Spain, which also experienced a civil war (1936-1939) and therefore also had to address the legacy of divisive symbols. It is argued that after Spain's transition to democracy in the 1970s, it initially adopted a policy that ignored the past, but later shifted toward a policy of transparency and reconciliation that displaced many symbols from the Spanish civil war and the autocratic regime that followed. However, in the United States, it is argued that such a reconciliation has yet to occur, and, in the meantime, symbols of the Confederacy remain deeply polarizing and therefore destabilizing. The thesis concludes with a number of policy recommendations for the United States to address the negative effects of Confederate symbols on democratic governance.