Murphy, Mary P. and Kirby, Peadar
(2007)
Ireland as a ‘competition state’.
IPEG Papers in Global Political Economy, 28.
Abstract
Ireland’s economic boom from 1994 to 2000 (from which the term ‘Celtic Tiger’ was
coined) has generated an extensive academic
literature debating its causes, impacts and
consequences. While an initial reading emphasised that economic transformation had
been achieved through market liberalisation (Barry,
1999; Sweeney, 1999; Clinch,
Convery and Walsh, 2002), this was soon contested by a literature that
focused more on
the crucial role played by the state. Scholar
s at the influential Economic and Social
Research Institute (ESRI) argued that ‘there was a great deal more to Ireland’s success
than liberalization of markets. The state has been deeply implicated in the entire process,
managing both economic development and the welfare state’ (Nolan, O’Connell and
Whelan, 2000: 3). They conclude
that ‘it is not a simple story of globalization, forced
withdrawal of the state and
the promotion of neo-liberalism’ (ibid.: 1). Ó Riain (2000,
2004) applied to the Irish state the concept
of ‘embedded autonomy’ taken from Evans
(1995) and he characterised it as a ‘flexible
developmental state’ in contrast to the
bureaucratic developmental states of East Asia, arguing that this constitutes a new model
of state-led development that is more responsive to the demands and pressures of
globalisation. His later work slightly amended the concept to that of a Developmental
Network State (DNS) as ‘network centrality is
critical to this new state – isolation from
the local or the global renders
it ineffective’ (2004: 4).
While contested by O’Hearn
(2000) and Kirby (2002), the concept of the developmental state was adopted by the
National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
in its 2003 tri-annual statement of the
state’s economic and social strategy and used as the basis for proposing a Developmental
Welfare State (DWS) for Ireland (NESC, 2003: 29-33; 2005a, 2005b).
Item Type: |
Article
|
Keywords: |
Ireland; competition state; |
Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
Item ID: |
4587 |
Depositing User: |
Dr. Mary Murphy
|
Date Deposited: |
18 Nov 2013 12:18 |
Journal or Publication Title: |
IPEG Papers in Global Political Economy |
Publisher: |
British International Studies Association (BISA) |
Refereed: |
Yes |
URI: |
|
Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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