ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the crisis triggered these large-scale protests. In the political realm, the changes were led by the center-right Independence Party, a party whose traditional conservatism was replaced in the 1990s by an out spoken neoliberal agenda of economic deregulation and privatization. Framing theory argues that the emergence of a diagnostic frame that identifies a public problem and blames it on illegitimate processes can potentially mobilize many in collective action. If state fiscal crises are known to make ruling authorities vulnerable to challenge, the Icelandic banking collapse created such a crisis. The financial crisis created a collectively experienced disruption in taken-for-granted reality. The perception was shared by many supporters of left-wing politics who prior to the crisis had resented the long-standing reign of the Right. Government leaders immediately came out framing it as an international financial storm, insisting that global forces external to government were to blame.
