Negotiated governance and public policy in Ireland / George Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, George, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political planning--Ireland.

Political planning.

Ireland--Politics and government--1949-.

Ireland.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xii, 206 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2005.

Summary:

In the last decade the pessimism that had engulfed the Irish economy during the 1980s has been replaced by an overwhelming political ebullience encapsulated, if not altogether explained, in the concept of our times: the Celtic Tiger. As a phrase it has remained all the more quixotic because definitions have thus far proven elusive. Few would deny, however, that it appears to possess that most ethereal of qualities: the ability to act as a prism through which our disparate, individual experiences of the contemporary Irish polity are refracted and made intelligible. Certainly, it has found favour among political commentators because it has rendered intelligible the almost incomprehensible: a period of unprecedented growth unimaginable a decade ago.

Amid the enthusiasm for embracing all that is 'particularly Irish' in this project it is hardly surprising to find that dissenting voices are few and far between. Yet, it is an age not without its contentious elements: the uncertainty of employment tenure, the inescapable increase in poverty during a period of economic boom or (and let us speak in hushed tones at this point) the emergence of a potential underclass in Irish society. And yet, almost perversely, it is precisely at this point that we can locate the appeal of the term 'Celtic Tiger'. For it is not that it expresses anything uniquely Irish or Celtic. Rather, its allure rests on something it is definitely not. It is definitely not Thatcherism. It is an intoxicating political elixir formulated around the State's alleged capacity to reconcile economic growth with political consensus. It is this transformation which forms the central preoccupation of this book.

Contents:

Words in Irish xiii

1 Negotiated governance in the era of the Celtic Tiger 23

2 'All boats rise on a new tide': reconstructing welfare in the era of the Celtic Tiger 53

3 'Redefining the public': civil service reform in the era of the Celtic Tiger 96

4 'Contestation in the countryside': rural governance in the era of the Celtic Tiger 124

5 Environmental governance in the era of the Celtic Tiger 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [194]-204) and index.

ISBN:

071906998X

0719069998

OCLC:

56696118

Publisher Number:

9780719069987

9780719069994