Ireland, Small Open Economies and European Integration Lost in Transition [Hardcover]

David Begg examines how four small open economies- Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland- have managed the stresses and strains of Europeanisation since the single market came into being, and as fault lines begin to appear within the European integration project. In particular, he drills down into the Irish Polity to see how its institutions have engaged with Europe and how decisions on critical issues like integration, EMU and Social Partnership were reached. He finds that both Ireland and Europe are at a critical juncture for different but interconnected reasons, and identifies the options that are available to them.

David Begg examines the experience of four small open economies- Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland- in dealing with Europeanisation over the last quarter of a century, as fault lines begin to appear within the European integration project.

1. Introduction
2. Katzenstein's World
3. 1994-2001: The Age of Employment Miracles
4. 2001-2008: European Integration Intensifies
5. Beyond 2008: Coping with the Crisis
6. Unpacking Ireland's Polity from a New Institutionalist Perspective
7. Conclusions

This book is a welcome addition to the literature on the development of the European Union. It studies four smaller members (Ireland Finland Netherlands and Denmark, three in the Eurozone, Denmark is not), all of whose policies are based on a social partnership approach. The book provides an academically rigorous and objective analysis of how these states have dealt, and deal with the issues posed by each phase of European integration. The author is a former Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and former Board member of tl#—