State Decision-Making in a Post-Crisis Economy. The Case of Iceland: A Post-Fordist and Field Theoretical Approach to Modern State Decision-Making

Abstract

This thesis analyses the extent and limitations of the Icelandic response to the financial crisis in 2008 with the use of Fligstein and McAdam’s Field Theory and Post-Fordist theory of modern Capitalism. The thesis establishes the existence of a pure Post-Fordist regime of accumulation, and holds that while state and labor have asserted significant influence on the post-crisis policies they have primarily served to reproduce the power of capital due to domestic and transnational Post-Fordist constellations. The Post-Fordist structures are found to reduce the effects of the egalitarian policies, and increase the relative power of capital within the Icelandic society. The labor unions have converged with capital interests, defended the Occupational Pension Funds at the cost of labor interests, and become proponents of expanding the Post-Fordist regime. The state has reproduced a refurbished status quo in the bank market and established control by confining to a multitude of social roles inherent within the state- and market structures. The extent of labor and state influence are further found to be the main deviations from the general European context, and the analysis brings out the holistic synergy between the two theories in explaining state decision-making in the contemporary political economy.