Part III: Moving Forward

Vilhjálmur Árnason calls our attention to the ways that some of those in positions of authority chose a strictly legal perspective to view their responsibilities at the time leading to the crisis. He suggests that the failure to take a wider, structural view of responsibility helped these leaders avoid a sense of accountability. Perhaps adding to this, political actors showed themselves easily distracted from addressing the full implications of the parliamentary investigations and the recommendations of the Working Group on Ethics – thanks to events as different as a dispute over responsibility for accounts in Icelandic banks’ overseas branches and a sizeable volcanic eruption. For these reasons, efforts of political institutions to restore trust are seen as lagging behind other groups’ initiatives.