Iceland's Financial Crisis

Valur Ingimundarson is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Iceland and the Chair of the Board of the EDDA – Center of Excellence. Philippe Urfalino is Senior Researcher at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France. Irma Erlingsdóttir is Associate Professor of French Contemporary Literature at the University of Iceland and Director of EDDA – Center of Excellence; the United Nations University Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (UNU-GEST); and Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference (RIKK), University of Iceland.

Introduction

Valur Ingimundarson, Philippe Urfalino, and Irma Erlingsdóttir

Part I

The Road to Economic Disaster

1. Iceland’s Financial Crisis: An Economic Perspective

Gylfi Zoega

2. The Rise and Fall of a Financial Empire: Looking at the Banking Collapse from the Inside Out

Gudrun Johnsen

3. The Political Economy of Iceland’s Boom and Bust

Stefán Ólafsson

Part II

The Political and Societal Responses to the Crisis

4. Political Opportunity, Framing, and Mobilization in Iceland’s Post-Crash Protests

Jón Gunnar Bernburg and Anna Soffía Víkingsdóttir

5. Contentious Politics, Political Expediency, and the Real Costs of the Icesave Debt

Helga Kristín Hallgrímsdóttir and Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly

6. Democratic Practices, Governance, and the Financial Crash

Vilhjálmur Árnason

7. The Politics of Transition, Memory, and Justice: Assigning Blame for the Crisis

Valur Ingimundarson

8. The Strategy of Redistribution: Iceland’s Way Out of the Crisis

Stefán Ólafsson

Part III

The Politics of Iceland’s Constitutional Reform

9. Icelandic Constitution-Making in Comparative Perspective

Jon Elster

10. Constitution on Ice

Thorvaldur Gylfason

11. Constitutional Revision: A Weak Legislative Framework Compounded by Political Disputes

Salvör Nordal

12. Constituent Power and Authorization: Anatomy and Failure of a Constitution-Making Process

Pasquale Pasquino

13. The Constitutional Council: Objectives and Shortcomings of an Innovative Process

Björg Thorarensen

14. The Constituent Assembly: A Study in Failure

Jón Ólafsson