Seventeen Media discourses on the economy in Ireland: framing the policy possibilities
-
Brendan K. O’Rourke
Abstract
Ireland suffered a lot economically in the Great Recession following the 2008 global financial crisis, yet its policies continued on a neoliberal trajectory, making Irish neoliberalism less a Zombie and more like a reinvigorated Frankenstein’s monster, with ordoliberal transplants from Germany grafted on to an Anglo-American neoliberal composite body. Yet, along with these continuities came much change. There was political change in party strengths and personnel. There was change in the Irish state’s capacity for policy analysis (MacCarthaigh, 2017), an increase in the number of policy analysts and their specialisms, and an increased stress on evidence-based policy making (see Chapters Four and Eight, this volume). How can a discursive approach help explain these continuities and changes in policy making? Perhaps, more importantly, how do we respond to make Irish policy discourse better?
This chapter first argues that a discursive approach can add much to our understanding of what has been happening in policy analysis in Ireland. The concept of hyper-specialisation is then introduced as it is both an important feature of the context in which policy discourse takes place, and because it shows the complexities of what discourses face as they travel across societies. Next, the chapter examines policy-relevant discourses of media and actors within the media, and unpacks recent developments to ascertain what they mean for Irish public policy discourse. It then examines how internationalisation affects such policy discourses and the impact of that complication on participation in policy debates. Further complexities are introduced in the following section, which considers the effects of technocratisation, and particularly economisation, on how policy is discussed.
Abstract
Ireland suffered a lot economically in the Great Recession following the 2008 global financial crisis, yet its policies continued on a neoliberal trajectory, making Irish neoliberalism less a Zombie and more like a reinvigorated Frankenstein’s monster, with ordoliberal transplants from Germany grafted on to an Anglo-American neoliberal composite body. Yet, along with these continuities came much change. There was political change in party strengths and personnel. There was change in the Irish state’s capacity for policy analysis (MacCarthaigh, 2017), an increase in the number of policy analysts and their specialisms, and an increased stress on evidence-based policy making (see Chapters Four and Eight, this volume). How can a discursive approach help explain these continuities and changes in policy making? Perhaps, more importantly, how do we respond to make Irish policy discourse better?
This chapter first argues that a discursive approach can add much to our understanding of what has been happening in policy analysis in Ireland. The concept of hyper-specialisation is then introduced as it is both an important feature of the context in which policy discourse takes place, and because it shows the complexities of what discourses face as they travel across societies. Next, the chapter examines policy-relevant discourses of media and actors within the media, and unpacks recent developments to ascertain what they mean for Irish public policy discourse. It then examines how internationalisation affects such policy discourses and the impact of that complication on participation in policy debates. Further complexities are introduced in the following section, which considers the effects of technocratisation, and particularly economisation, on how policy is discussed.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures, tables and boxes vii
- List of abbreviations viii
- Notes on contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction to the seriesr xv
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Foreword xix
- Preface xxiii
- Contextualising policy analysis in Ireland 1
-
History, styles and methods of policy analysis in Ireland
- The evolution of economic policy analysis in Ireland 19
- The evolution of social policy analysis in Ireland: from a theocentric to an econocentric paradigm? 33
- The changing policy analysis capacity of the Irish state 47
- Introducing evidence into policy making in Ireland 63
-
Policy analysis at various levels of government: from local to the EU
- Ireland’s ‘unique blend’: local government and policy analysis 79
- Committees and the legislature 93
- Policy analysis in the civil service 107
- Europeanised policy making in Ireland 123
-
Think tanks, interest groups, political parties and gender-based policy analysis
- The social partners and the NESC: from tripartite dialogue via common knowledge events to network knowledge 141
- Thinks tanks and their role in policy making in Ireland 157
- Civil society organizations and policy analysis 171
- Political parties and the policy process 187
- Gender expertise and policy analysis 203
-
The public, science and the media: the wider policy analysis environment in Ireland
- Democratic innovations and policy analysis: climate policy and Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly (2016–18) 219
- Irish science policy: a case study in evidence-based policy design for small open economies 235
- Media discourses on the economy in Ireland: framing the policy possibilities 249
- Index 263
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures, tables and boxes vii
- List of abbreviations viii
- Notes on contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction to the seriesr xv
- Acknowledgements xvii
- Foreword xix
- Preface xxiii
- Contextualising policy analysis in Ireland 1
-
History, styles and methods of policy analysis in Ireland
- The evolution of economic policy analysis in Ireland 19
- The evolution of social policy analysis in Ireland: from a theocentric to an econocentric paradigm? 33
- The changing policy analysis capacity of the Irish state 47
- Introducing evidence into policy making in Ireland 63
-
Policy analysis at various levels of government: from local to the EU
- Ireland’s ‘unique blend’: local government and policy analysis 79
- Committees and the legislature 93
- Policy analysis in the civil service 107
- Europeanised policy making in Ireland 123
-
Think tanks, interest groups, political parties and gender-based policy analysis
- The social partners and the NESC: from tripartite dialogue via common knowledge events to network knowledge 141
- Thinks tanks and their role in policy making in Ireland 157
- Civil society organizations and policy analysis 171
- Political parties and the policy process 187
- Gender expertise and policy analysis 203
-
The public, science and the media: the wider policy analysis environment in Ireland
- Democratic innovations and policy analysis: climate policy and Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly (2016–18) 219
- Irish science policy: a case study in evidence-based policy design for small open economies 235
- Media discourses on the economy in Ireland: framing the policy possibilities 249
- Index 263
