What do you think?
Rate this book
Chasing Progress in the Irish Republic: Ideology, Democracy and Dependent Development
The Republic of Ireland shares some of the economic problems of the Third World, and the political structures of the First World. This book investigates the political causes and consequences of the economic policy choices made in Ireland since independence. It addresses many key debates in political economy and development studies, and is a contribution to analysis of the role of the state in the international economy.
242 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 1994
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Read
March 12, 2024Published in 1994, this book by a North American social scientist offers a critical analysis of the political and economic developments in the 26 counties from 1958 to the early 1990s . The theoretical viewpoint is informed by dependency theory and is combined with a Gramsci-sant approach to the dependent state as a mediator of contending classes demands in the face of shifts in global capitalism.
The understanding of dependency theory offered conforms to criticisms I've read, by contemporary Latin American proponents of Marxist Dependency Theory, that debates around the theory were taken up in an uninformed manner in Anglophone countries thanks to gatekeeping by Cardoso and hostility by others. In this case, the author contrasts his good interpretation of 'dependent development', based on Cardoso and anglophone Bureaucratic Authoritarianism literature, to 'bad' dependency theory strawmen, who are mostly uncited but supposedly argue that the dependent location in the international division of labour is static and unchanging.
The analysis of the 26 itself is interesting - if you are into this kind of thing - in particular as regards the development of the IDA and how the Telesis Report was taken up by various actors. The author must have had quite good access with interview data from civil servants, IDA drones, as well as the likes of Noel Browne and senior Sticks.
The pessimism of the afterword considering this was written just before the so called 'Celtic Tiger' is striking. As was the failure to mention the creation of the IFSC in 1987. Ooops!
The understanding of dependency theory offered conforms to criticisms I've read, by contemporary Latin American proponents of Marxist Dependency Theory, that debates around the theory were taken up in an uninformed manner in Anglophone countries thanks to gatekeeping by Cardoso and hostility by others. In this case, the author contrasts his good interpretation of 'dependent development', based on Cardoso and anglophone Bureaucratic Authoritarianism literature, to 'bad' dependency theory strawmen, who are mostly uncited but supposedly argue that the dependent location in the international division of labour is static and unchanging.
The analysis of the 26 itself is interesting - if you are into this kind of thing - in particular as regards the development of the IDA and how the Telesis Report was taken up by various actors. The author must have had quite good access with interview data from civil servants, IDA drones, as well as the likes of Noel Browne and senior Sticks.
The pessimism of the afterword considering this was written just before the so called 'Celtic Tiger' is striking. As was the failure to mention the creation of the IFSC in 1987. Ooops!
Displaying 1 of 1 review