Questions but no answers

While this book stands out in its genre as a balanced overview of Ireland's adaptation to globalisation, it fails to offer solutions to the problems it identifies, says Peadar Kirby

Ireland and the Global Question. By Michael J O'Sullivan. Published by Cork University Press. €29.95 hardback

Amid the avalanche of books on globalisation and Ireland, Ireland and the Global Question is unusual in that it begins with a quote from the 1916 Proclamation and ends with a quote from Terence McSwiney. For the author believes that the 'global question' referred to in the title is simply a contemporary version of the 'national question' that has dominated Irish politics for over a century.

O'Sullivan, described in the blurb as having taught economics in Princeton University and as currently working in the City of London, writes that globalisation "is still likely to be guided by the same principles that motivated key events in modern Irish history: namely, a desire to maintain the sovereignty and independence of the nation in the face of powerful external forces".

While acknowledging the economic successes of Ireland's adaptation to globalisation through making itself attractive to foreign capital, O'Sullivan emphasises that, as a result, "someone else either owns or controls the levers of the Irish economy".

He is unimpressed by the Irish business class which he describes as "fast, aggressive and shiny, not unlike the newly monied classes of other emerging economies" and he adds that "Irish companies have only got poor corporate governance as a distinguishing characteristic".

Indeed, he quite refreshingly dismisses the complacency of so many of his fellow economists by stating that "Ireland has become too fond of and familiar with the steady flow of investment capital from abroad, principally from the US" and that it can leave as easily as it came. He finds "little evidence of an exceptional Irish economic model" and fears that external factors will not be as kind to us in the future.

But if the Irish economy has been fast globalised, this masks the fact that "a great part of Irish society is unused to, or untouched by, globalisation". In fact, he describes globalisation in Ireland as a "lop-sided process" as "it has not been harnessed in a way that has spread wealth to the parts of society that need it most".

The book assembles a wealth of evidence on the growth in poverty and inequality, on the human underdevelopment, the lack of social mobility and the rise in racism that have accompanied our economic success. He concludes that "not enough is being done by the state to mediate the effects of globalisation on Irish society".

This is where the importance of republicanism comes in. O'Sullivan writes that our politicians have swapped ideology for pragmatism with the result that "globalisation in Ireland has proceeded with little thought for its effects on society and the broad risks that economic openness poses". In this context, he sees republicanism, or "freedom as non-domination" as he defines it, as offering what he calls "the appropriate reference point" for addressing globalisation.

He writes that "republicanism refers to a system of government that fosters the common rather than the individual good and promotes freedom and equality". This he contrasts strongly to today's Ireland with its "class of new rich" and its "privatisation of public goods" such as education and health. "Irish society seems more in need of such a framework than in previous decades," he concludes.

One interesting point O'Sullivan makes is that Ireland used to be grouped with the poorer countries of the EU – Spain, Portugal and Greece. They were its peer group. We now need to graduate to a new peer group, he argues, but whereas the Nordic countries should be that group, Ireland's economic and social reality means that it is not at all comparable to their successes. We should be aiming higher, is the clear message, especially in addressing growing inequality.

Yet, while this book is balanced and thoughtful in outlining all that is wrong about the way that Ireland has embraced globalisation, it remains very general and vague in offering any solutions. While O'Sullivan's analysis clearly identifies the failure of political structures to change and the fact that "it is questionable whether the state has a framework for dealing with the effect of globalisation on Irish society", unfortunately he does not at all examine how political structures should change or how the state could better manage globalisation.

Rather bizarrely, after outlining Ireland's key economic and social weaknesses, much of what O'Sullivan offers as concrete proposals focus on foreign rather than domestic policy. In a lengthy chapter on "neutrality in a new world", he offers some useful suggestions as to how Ireland could play a greater global role in peace building and conflict mediation. Interestingly, the Department of Foreign Affairs' new White Paper on overseas development policy pledges to do some of these very things.

But what the book proposes on how Ireland could better manage globalisation is not only vague and general but contradictory. Having lamented the swapping of ideology for pragmatism, the author urges us to be more pragmatic; having lamented the failure of the state to manage globalisation better, he urges that policy-makers need to distinguish themselves and "show that there is a discernible Irish model of economic management"; having lamented the failure of institutions to address the new challenges of globalisation, he proposes "building new domestic institutions and managing social problems like inequality and racism".

If O'Sullivan is unusual among his economic peers in taking a more rounded and critical view of Ireland's adaptation to globalisation, unfortunately he reverts to form in offering nothing more than pious platitudes when it comes to the hard questions of power and institution-building.

This book, then, is a good overview of the impact globalisation is having on Ireland. Its main benefit is in the balanced and critical view it takes, unlike the one-sided triumphalistic viewpoint of most economists. By placing this analysis in the context of republicanism, it offers an interesting suggestion as to how politics could be reinvigorated to deal with the huge challenges we face, but unfortunately the book does not develop how this might happen.

As our politicians take to the road for the next general election, they might be well advised to pack this book. Not only will it open their eyes to much that seems to escape their notice in today's Ireland but it will help them, especially those who belong to the 'republican party', to see what a contradiction exists between the society they have helped create and the noble ideals they claim to follow.p

Dr Peadar Kirby lectures on the MA in Globalisation and the MA in International Relations at the School of Law and Government, DCU. His next book, Taming the Tiger: Social Exclusion in a Globalised Ireland, is co-edited with David Jacobson and Deiric Ó Broin. It is published by Tasc and New Island Books on 8 November 2006