Ireland's Economic Transformation: Industrial Policy, European Integration and Social Partnership. Working Paper #2, December 1998

UNSPECIFIED (1998) Ireland's Economic Transformation: Industrial Policy, European Integration and Social Partnership. Working Paper #2, December 1998. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

Ireland has been one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union or the OECD in the 1990s. This paper reviews the policy approach which underpins the country's economic transformation, tracing the role of industrial policy, European integration, macroeconomic stabilization and social partnership. Despite the initial success of the outward-looking strategy, a combination of domestic factors and European integration produced a deep economic, social and political crisis in the 1980s. From within this drastic experience, there emerged a new perspective - on the Irish economy and the policy approaches available to a small European member state - shared by the major economic, political and social actors during the past decade. The paper outlines the analytical foundations of the partnership approach and the critique by neo-liberal and orthodox economists. Irish social partnership offers and analytical challenge, since the country does not display the structural or organizational characteristics normally associated with neo-corporatism. By contrast, the self-understanding of Irish social partnership emphasizes deliberation and problem-solving. The Irish story reflects a complex interaction of domestic and international factors. European integration has transformed Ireland's relation to its international environment, and social partnership has transformed its internal ability to mediate interests and adhere to coherent strategies.

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