SPIRe’s Prof. Daniel Thomas outlines the challenges that still remain to overcoming the EU financial crisis in a recent blog post at europedebate.ie.
The 2012 PSAI Annual Conference will be hosted by the University Of Ulster, Magee Campus, Derry, and will take place on 19-21 October 2012 in the City Hotel, Queen’s Quay. The headline theme for this conference will be: Politics, Culture and Society in a Changing Ireland.
Full details available here
The conference programme is here
SPIRe’s Dr. Niamh Haridman will open SPIRe’s fall seminar series with a presentation on her recent research “The Politics of Tough Budgets.” Dr. Hardiman’s presentation will be in G317 in the Arts (Newman) Building from 13:00-14:00 and is open to the public.
Abstract:
The global financial crisis opened large budget deficit and public debt problems in the countries of the Eurozone periphery – Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain. All have been required to adopt budget retrenchment measures, particularly so for the first three once they entered EU-IMF loan programmes. This paper analyses the dynamics of fiscal responses to the crisis across the four cases, using the content of budget decisions and the profile of budgetary outcomes as the principal primary data. These countries provide interesting variation on several dimensions: in the origins of the crisis (with different mixes of public and private sector debt), in initial responses to the crisis (prioritizing an expansionary or a contractionary stance), in the composition of budget adjustment (revenue-raising or expenditure-cutting), and in the evolution of their budgetary stance over time. The paper uses the full resources of case study methods to examine the policy configurations that underpin commonality and variation, and to expose the elements involved in complex causal processes. This analytical strategy enables us to investigate the political economy conditions underpinning fiscal policy choices in hard times.
SPIRe is pleased to announce its fall seminar series, featuring new research from SPIRe faculty and students as well as guest lectures from Dr. Guy Ben-Porat, Ben-Gurion University, Professor the Baroness Haleh-Afshar, The University of York, and Dr. Alan Coffee, Birkbeck College.
Posted by David Farrell, September 9 2012
Here is a copy of my opinion piece in last Saturday’s Irish Times. Given that they tend to put their archives behind a firewall, this link may not work for long. So, here is the original draft in full….
We are seemingly weeks away from the launch of the government’s much anticipated – and for many of us, long overdue – constitutional convention, which is designed to give ordinary citizens a voice in debates over possible reforms to our constitution. To say that this will be something new to Irish politics is an understatement. Continue reading
Five students from the UCD School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) have just successfully completed graduate internships as part of their MA programme. Working with employers as diverse as Friends of the Earth, the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), the Office of Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague and Suas Educational Development, these students have pioneered a new innovation in graduate education at UCD SPIRe
In 2011 UCD SPIRe established this trial internship programme for graduate students undertaking MA programmes in Politics, International Relations, Development Studies and Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict. These internships were intended to provide our graduate students with a unique opportunity for professional and academic development and to apply their knowledge in real-world situations. They replace the traditional minor Masters dissertation. The programme was also designed to give UCD SPIRe graduate students a unique comparative advantage in seeking post qualification employment. The Internships themselves are an integral part of the student’s academic programme at UCD, and are assessed as such.
In reflecting on their experience, the students said:
“The internship has not only allowed me to see the practical application of the material I have been studying in university, but also made me eminently more employable.”
“The internship has been a major success not only for the achievement of the majority of the learning objectives, but also for the wider knowledge and assistance it has given me for seeking a career in the future”
“The (internship) experience has been an invaluable one and has helped me to understand the field of politics and international relations a lot better as I got to experience first-hand how things are done before they make the papers.”
For their part, the graduate students’ host employers said:
“The internship scheme was a new departure (for us) … and has set a precedent which will hopefully lead to similar and further collaboration between (us) and UCD”
“(The internship) aimed at providing increased practical experience in the selected field of study, enhancing exposure to career opportunities and expanding the depth and breadth of information available for making career decisions.”
“(The student’s) performance in the role has highlighted for our team the benefits that can be brought by having someone research focused and will influence our decisions when designing future internships.”
UCD SPIRe is proud of the quality and skills of its graduate students. Over the years our graduates have gone on to permanent professional posts with the British, German, Irish, Korean and Turkish Foreign Ministries, the European Commission and European Parliament, the European External Action Service, Interpol, the Asia Development Bank, the IBRD, the World Trade Organisation, the UN New York and UN Geneva and the IMF as well as a wide variety of international private sector employers and Non Governmental Organisations.
If you would like to pursue the possibility of hosting a UCD SPIRe Graduate Intern, or have any questions about the programme, please contact: Professor Ben Tonra, Internship Coordinator, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, UCD, Dublin 4. Tel. + 353 1 716 8195 Email ben.tonra@ucd.ie
SPIRe’s Dr. Niamh Hardiman contributes a co-authored chapter, “Ireland: Hubris and nemesis” to the recently published “Banking Systems in Crisis: The Faces of Liberal Capitalism” edited by Suzanne Konzelmann and Marc Fovargue-Davies, available from Routledge here.
SPIRE’s Dr. Niamh Hardiman recently spoke on political reform at the MacGill Summer School. A transcript of her comments can be found here.
A post by Dr Niamh Hardiman, SPIRe, UCD, July 9, 2012
Irish politics is generally held to be in grave need of reform. The global economic crisis since 2008 showed how poorly prepared we were for any downturn, let alone anything on the scale of the crisis that has engulfed us. Our attempts to get to the bottom of successive scandals by setting up tribunals of inquiry have left us disillusioned. The party system itself, which seemed so remarkably durable throughout good times and bad, is now more fluid than it has been in a long time: Fianna Fáil’s once-dominant position has been overturned, and Sinn Féin and other parties are scrambling to fill the gap. But the current Fine Gael-Labour coalition controls a historically large majority, and has promised to undertake a new round of political reform. This is a good moment to pause and consider what exactly it is we wish to reform.
Irish Governance in Crisis, a new volume edited by SPIRe’s Dr. Niamh Hardiman, is now available from Manchester University Press.
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