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Despite having lived through some of history's greatest financial and economic crises, the two small open economies of Iceland and Ireland are now enjoying relatively high growth rates and declining unemployment, and are broadly regarded as success stories of effective economic turnarounds. In both countries, policy focused on restoring the confidence of international capital markets, but whereas Icelandic crisis management has compensated the people worst hit by the crisis through socially balanced austerity and debt cancellation, Ireland's austerity followed a more orthodox, European approach with significant inequality-creating effects. Iceland's heterodox approach was made possible through capital controls and a devaluation of the currency, while Ireland could neither devalue nor write down bank debt. The article shows how the dependence on international capital markets and the abandonment of independent monetary policy restrict the flexibility small states have previously enjoyed and increase dependence on fortunate developments in the world economy.

Til trods for at Irland og Island siden 2008 har gennemlevet nogle af historiens største finansielle og økonomiske kriser, nyder de to små åbne økonomier nu relativt høje vækstrater og lav arbejdsløshed og anses som succeshistorier. I begge lande har krisehåndteringen haft fokus på at genoprette internationale kapitalmarkeders tillid til de to økonomier, men hvor Island har kompenseret befolkningen gennem en socialt afbalanceret sparepolitik og gældseftergivelse, har Irlands sparepolitik fulgt en mere ortodoks europæisk tilgang med betydelige ulighedsskabende effekter. Islands heterodokse tilgang var mulig gennem kapitalkontrol og en devaluering af valutaen, hvorimod Irland hverken kunne devaluere eller nedskrive bankernes gæld. Artiklen viser, hvordan afhængigheden af internationale kapitalmarkeder og opgivelsen af monetær politik begrænser den fleksibilitet, små stater tidligere har nydt, og øger afhængigheden af heldige udviklinger i verdensøkonomien.

How may we understand the occurrence of gradual but significant change following economic crisis? Theories of gradual institutional transformation offer important insights to analyses of long-term institutional change, but have so far shied away from dealing with institutional change during and following crisis, leaving the issue to more traditional critical juncture models. Instead of seeing gradual institutional change originating only in the efforts of rule takers to circumvent existing institutions – potentially leading to gradual change over longer periods of time – the paper suggests that in more abrupt processes of change characteristic of economic crisis, rule makers may also reinterpret the meaning of rules and redeploy them under significantly altered circumstances leading to gradual change. The paper suggests that the concept of bricolage is useful for understanding how policymakers create new institutional setups through the re-ordering of existing institutional elements. The empirical relevance of these arguments is demonstrated with a study of post-crisis special bank insolvency policies in Denmark and the United States, showing how in both polities new institutions were created from existing institutional elements.

How can we conceptualise the emergence of new political ideas? Demonstrating that the discursive institutionalist literature is silent on this question, the article links this theoretical lacuna to the problem of ideational infinite regress, i.e. that if we try to identify the absolute origin of an idea, we find that the relations to other ideational elements develop ad infinitum and the end or beginning of the idea never appears. Ideas do not emerge from an absolute origin but instead are created when a set of ideational elements are yoked together by political actors. Three ways that ideational change occurs is suggested: a change in the relations in the idea (recasting the idea), the replacement of at least one of the existing ideational elements with ideational elements hitherto not part of the idea (renewing the idea) and finally a wholesale change of ideational elements in the idea (revolutionising the idea). Adapted from the source document.

Research Highlights and Abstract This article Gives clearer conceptualisation of what an idea is. Provides clearer conceptualisation of how ideas may change over time. Uses central arguments from relational sociology and conceptual analysis in discursive institutionalism. Provides new theoretical perspectives on ideational change in wake of the recent financial- and economic crisis. How can we conceptualise the emergence of new political ideas? Demonstrating that the discursive institutionalist literature is silent on this question, the article links this theoretical lacuna to the problem of ideational infinite regress, i.e. that if we try to identify the absolute origin of an idea, we find that the relations to other ideational elements develop ad infinitum and the end or beginning of the idea never appears. Ideas do not emerge from an absolute origin but instead are created when a set of ideational elements are yoked together by political actors. Three ways that ideational change occurs is suggested: a change in the relations in the idea (recasting the idea), the replacement of at least one of the existing ideational elements with ideational elements hitherto not part of the idea (renewing the idea) and finally a wholesale change of ideational elements in the idea (revolutionising the idea).