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Between the years of the mid thirties through to 1960, independent Ireland suffered from economic stagnation, and also went through a period of intense cultural and psychological repression. While external circumstances account for much of the stagnation - especially the depression of the thirties and the Second World War - "Preventing the Future" argues that the situation was aggravated by internal circumstances. The key domestic factor was the failure to extend higher and technical education and training to larger sections of the population. This derived from political stalemates in a small country which derived in turn from the power of the Catholic Church, the strength of the small-farm community, the ideological wish to preserve an older society and, later, gerontocratic tendencies in the political elites and in society as a whole. While economic growth did accelerate after 1960, the political stand-off over mass education resulted in large numbers of young people being denied preparation for life in the modern world and, arguably, denied Ireland a sufficient supply of trained labour and educated citizens. Ireland's Celtic Tiger of the nineties was in great part driven by a new and highly educated, and technically trained workforce. The political stalemates of the forties and fifties delayed the initial, incomplete take-off until the sixties, and resulted in the Tiger arriving nearly a generation later than it might have.
About the Author
Tom Garvin is professor of Politics at University College Dublin. His books include Nationalist Revolutionaries in Ireland (1987), 1922: the Birth of Irish Democracy (1996), and Preventing the Future: Why was Ireland so poor for so long? (2004) . He is also the author of many articles and chapters on Irish and comparative politics. He is an alumnus of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has taught at the University of Georgia, Colgate University and Mount Holyoke College.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book's subtitle explains its raison d'être: why was Ireland so poor for so long? Drawing on the work of the American political scientist Mancur Olson, Garvin argues that the economic and social reforms necessary for Ireland to become a rich country were stymied for over thirty years by a `blocking coalition' of interest groups, including the Catholic Church, the trade unions, the medical establishment, the Irish language lobby, and employers' organizations. The Church feared that economic growth would precipitate a more liberal, and therefore, pagan culture. The trade unions were more interested in the redistribution of a small economic pie than supporting reforms to increase the size of that pie. Seemingly, purely for reasons of status, the medical establishment supported the Church in its efforts to prevent state involvement in the provision of health care, while the Irish language lobby ensured that more and more school time was devoted to Irish - at the expense of economically useful technical education - in a futile and ineffective attempt to revive the language. Employers' organizations, which mainly represented small family shops, were obsessed with preventing `unfair' (a catch-all term) competition from large department stores. The activities of this `blocking coalition' were broadly supported by the populace, who, riddled with deference, seemed to accept that Ireland would always be a poor little country. Meanwhile, politicians, many of whom were cultural nationalists, wanted Ireland to be a Catholic, traditional and idealist land, rather than (the only alternative apparently) a pagan, modern and materialistic one.
Nevertheless, argues Garvin, it was politicians, especially Fianna Fáil's Sean Lemass, who began implementing reforms, particularly with relation to economic and educational policy, that began Ireland's dalliance with modernity. Such a momentous break with tradition was motivated by the economic sclerosis of the mid-nineteen fifties, attested to by the high level of emigration. This contrasted unfavorably with the rest of Western Europe: even countries which had been defeated in the war were reveling in the unprecedented economic expansion of the `thirty golden years'. The Irish national project, it seemed, had failed. This new realism on the part of Ireland's political leadership was supported by an increasingly restive lay intellectuals, academics, and senior civil servants. What would have happened if such a volte-face had not been implemented? Garvin suggests the development of a 'post-de Valera `Peronisation' of the polity, with an anti-intellectual populist politics dismissing the ordinary wisdom of economic science in favour of an emotional redistributivism combined with a new explosion of Anglophobe irredentist nationalism. A vicious circle of populist irrationalism in political life might have driven the economy into free fall - the Republic of Ireland as a Latin American country, Europe's answer to Uruguay'. (p. 195)
The book's thesis is very interesting. Yet, the thesis itself could have been presented in a much better fashion. There's a lot of repetition, and many of the quotes are unnecessarily long. In other words, the work could have done with a good deal of editing. All in all, however, it's a good read.
Nevertheless, argues Garvin, it was politicians, especially Fianna Fáil's Sean Lemass, who began implementing reforms, particularly with relation to economic and educational policy, that began Ireland's dalliance with modernity. Such a momentous break with tradition was motivated by the economic sclerosis of the mid-nineteen fifties, attested to by the high level of emigration. This contrasted unfavorably with the rest of Western Europe: even countries which had been defeated in the war were reveling in the unprecedented economic expansion of the `thirty golden years'. The Irish national project, it seemed, had failed. This new realism on the part of Ireland's political leadership was supported by an increasingly restive lay intellectuals, academics, and senior civil servants. What would have happened if such a volte-face had not been implemented? Garvin suggests the development of a 'post-de Valera `Peronisation' of the polity, with an anti-intellectual populist politics dismissing the ordinary wisdom of economic science in favour of an emotional redistributivism combined with a new explosion of Anglophobe irredentist nationalism. A vicious circle of populist irrationalism in political life might have driven the economy into free fall - the Republic of Ireland as a Latin American country, Europe's answer to Uruguay'. (p. 195)
The book's thesis is very interesting. Yet, the thesis itself could have been presented in a much better fashion. There's a lot of repetition, and many of the quotes are unnecessarily long. In other words, the work could have done with a good deal of editing. All in all, however, it's a good read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
history as analysis of choices rather than a simple chronologue of events, my only criticism & the reason for withholding a fifth star is that the author appears to me to be most comfortable & fluent in his examination of the dept of education. nevetheless, it answers the question it poses in the subtitle in a readable & thought provoking fashion.
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Far from being part of the rebuilding and wealth generating part of the European economy Ireland at this time turned inwards and turned into a quasi-dictatorship modeled on North Korea.
Home rule WAS Rome rule.
The Catholic church needs to be closed down and its special relationship outlawed. The people of this island suffered enough pain and misery as a direct result of their wannabe fascist and joyless policies.
This is an excellent book. For anyone interested in how Ireland made itself poor at the behest of vested interests this is a must read.
This must never ever happen again. We deserved better than what we got.
Home rule WAS Rome rule.
The Catholic church needs to be closed down and its special relationship outlawed. The people of this island suffered enough pain and misery as a direct result of their wannabe fascist and joyless policies.
This is an excellent book. For anyone interested in how Ireland made itself poor at the behest of vested interests this is a must read.
This must never ever happen again. We deserved better than what we got.
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