Accountability after Crisis: Portugal

• Main Authors: Gorbunova, Ekaterina Mikhailovna, Cancela, João Camacho Giestas
• Other Authors: Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais (IPRI)
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Economic & Social Research Council 2018
• Subjects: SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/99085

UID/CPO/04627/2013 This report was commissioned as part of the Accountability After Economic Crisis project – a three- year initiative funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC-ES/M011321/1). Members of the project are based at City, University of London, Queens University Belfast, and the University of Kent. The project explores the policies of accountability deployed in the aftermath of the global 2008 economic recession (the ‘Great Recession’). Using six case studies (Cyprus, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain), we approach political accountability through a comparative and thematic framework that focuses on the use of specific tools of accountability following the financial crisis. The policies of accountability include prosecutions, fact-finding commissions and truth commissions and official apologies. At base, the project hopes to make contributions both to the theory of ‘crisis governance’ as well as to the practice of how governments react to economic crises. More than 100 elected officials, civil servants, academics, journalists, and activists were interviewed for the project. We also developed a novel database with prosecutions, truth commissions and apologies in the aftermath of the crisis in the six countries. Drawing on a experts’ testimonies and the use of a new database, the project provides policy makers with concrete advice for pursuing accountability in future economic crises. The country reports have a wide readership envisioned, including policy makers in all countries and at various levels of government (including international bodies); scholars; activists; and journalists. They have been written without academic jargon, and in both English and relevant local languages, to facilitate their practical utility. publishersversion published