The causes of financial transparency in Spain: Democratic strenght or critical juncture?

Authors

  • Aitor Pérez Ruiz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.179.08

Keywords:

Transparency, financial regulation, terrorism, money laundering, historical neo-institutionalism, process tracing, global governance.

Abstract

This article traces the antecedents of the high levels of financial transparency in Spain, which are aligned to those of the most transparent countries in the world such as Finland and Denmark. Given that the political science literature on transparency links this concept to democratic deepening and does not offer a response to this question, this article undertakes an in-depth study of the case of Spain. The study follows a process-tracing methodology and is based upon concepts borrowed from historical neo-institutionalism.
The paper concludes that Spain’s opting for a strict and accelerated application of the international standards on financial transparency was influenced by very specific historical circumstances. The country was at a critical point in its fight against ETA when the issue of terrorist financing was introduced into the international anti-money laundering agenda as a consequence of the 09/11 attacks.

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ARTICLES