This paper examines the shift in the relationship between the government and the Icelandic fishing sector in the wake of the financial crisis that hit the country in 2008. A new left-of-centre government that came into power a few months later set out to bring about real changes. Therefore it has been reluctant to concede the power to make public polices to organized interest groups in the way previous governments were. In particular, the fishing sector has been targeted for fundamental changes. Unused to being both ignored and vilified the fishing sector has responded to the unwillingness of the government to negotiate by organizing media campaigns and cementing their links to the Independence Party. The paper will examine how successful these strategies have been and whether it likely that a change in government will return power to the fishing sector. The case presented in this paper has implications for theories of how public policy is determined in small states.
Keywords: neo-corporatism, interest groups, political parties, media
