The growing integration of international markets raises the question of how, and to what extent, domestic political processes within states continue to matter. The thesis that markets force a ‘race to the bottom’ and the destruction of the welfare state has been discredited; there is...

Ireland’s rate of growth and employment creation during the 1990s far outstripped performance in the rest of the OECD. To what degree is this attributable to chance fluctuations in the international economy, the coincidental alignment of Irish politics and institutions with international...

The Irish economy has had one of the worst experiences of economic crisis within the EU since the onset of international financial crisis in 2007/8. That the crisis has an international dimension is beyond question. What needs to be explored further is the contribution of domestic political...

Internal and external pressures are constantly stimulating adaptation of core characteristics and norms of democratic government. In this paper, drawing on the Irish experience, we wish to consider how systems of democratic accountability have responded to fragmentation of government caused by...