Accountability After Crisis Data, 2010-2019

The project ‘Truth, Accountability or Impunity? Transitional Justice and the Economic Crisis’ completed a repository of policies of accountability in response to the post-2008 Great Recession in six European countries (Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal & Spain). The repository included recorded prosecutions of bank executives, office holders and politicians on charges related to white collar crimes and/or corruption in the lead up to the economic crisis. It also includes fact finding commissions (i.e. independent commissions of inquiry and/or parliamentary commissions of inquiry) designed to document patterns of policy and institutional failures that led to the economic meltdown, in the period between 2010-2018. The rationale for developing the repository was, first, to map the range of policies deployed and, second, to investigate potential variations in the national policies. In parallel with the development of the repository, the project included the conduct of approximately 133 confidential semi-structured interviews in Ireland, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Washington D.C. (IMF) and Brussels (EU). These included interviews with prosecutors, judges, elected officials (e.g. former Prime Ministers, Ministers, MPs), unelected officials (e.g. policymakers at central banks, relevant ministries, EU bodies, senior IMF executives etc), NGO members, journalists, academics, defense lawyers and other informed stakeholders to understand the rationale and their attitudes towards policies of accountability. There is little emphasis in the extant literature on the role and impact of different mechanisms of accountability in post-crisis settings, so these interviews were expected to shed useful analytical light. Finally, with regards to the case selection six European countries with similar background conditions and exposure to the crisis but different policy responses, each representing a different approach to accountability.

本项目《真相、问责或追责？过渡性正义 (Transitional Justice) 与经济危机》已建成一套针对2008年全球大衰退 (Great Recession) 后欧洲六国（爱尔兰、冰岛、希腊、塞浦路斯、葡萄牙与西班牙）的问责政策数据库。该数据库收录了经济危机爆发前涉及白领犯罪和/或腐败指控的银行高管、公职人员及政客的起诉记录，同时涵盖2010年至2018年间设立的各类事实调查委员会（即独立调查委员会和/或议会调查委员会）的相关资料，用于系统记录引发本次经济崩溃的政策与制度失灵模式。本数据库的建设初衷有二：其一为梳理各类问责政策的实施范畴，其二为探究各国问责政策之间的潜在差异。在数据库建设的同期，项目组还在爱尔兰、冰岛、希腊、塞浦路斯、葡萄牙、西班牙、华盛顿特区 (国际货币基金组织, IMF) 及布鲁塞尔 (欧盟, EU) 开展了共计约133场保密半结构化访谈。访谈对象涵盖检察官、法官、民选官员（如前总理、部长、议员）、非民选官员（如中央银行、相关部委、欧盟机构的政策制定者、国际货币基金组织高管等）、非政府组织成员、记者、学者、辩护律师及其他知情利益相关者，旨在了解他们对各类问责政策的看法及背后的动因。现有学术文献对危机后不同问责机制的作用与影响关注度极低，因此本次访谈有望为相关研究提供极具价值的分析视角。本次选取的六个欧洲国家，虽背景条件相似且受危机波及程度相近，但采取了截然不同的政策应对，各自代表了一种独特的问责路径。