Group Responsibility in the Aftermath of Apartheid

Abstract

This paper deals with the issue of collective responsibility in the aftermath of
apartheid. For the purposes of this paper I assume that there is such a thing as collective responsibility and, given this assumption, I show that determining precisely which the relevant responsible groups are is by no means a straightforward task. There are at least three models that are used in the literature to determine which collectives specifically are responsible. The three standard models used for determining collective responsibility also show us in what ways individuals forming part of each collective are responsible. For instance, some individuals will be responsible for decisions made and others
for benefits accrued. An important conclusion of this investigation is that responsible
groups cannot clearly be divided along racial lines although race clearly does play an important role.

South African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 27 (4) 2008: pp. 340-352