European Union Power and Regional Involvement: A Case Study of the Political Implications of the Reform of the Structural Funds for Ireland

Abstract

In 1988, the Reform of the Structural Funds of the European Union introduced new political structures, where one of the main objectives was to encourage participation of a much broader range of actors in the decision making process. In the present research, we limit our analysis to just one Member state, Ireland. As Ireland is a centralized, unitary state with a centralized semi-corporatist bargaining structure, we investigate how the Structural Funds Reform has been applied in this Member state. Did the Reform and to what degree, shift power away from Ireland’s traditional national centralised elite over two time periods corresponding to the two rounds of Structural Funds: 1988–1993 and 1994–1999? If so we want to know whether this has resulted in an increased involvement of a broader range of actors from the national and European union levels as well as the sub-national levels in Ireland, and under which conditions this occurred.