‘Riding the Juggernaut’: Selectivity and Entrepreneurship in Ireland

Abstract

The creation of a class of strong native entrepreneurs has long been an aim of Irish industrial policy. Social science discussion of strategies stimulating Irish enterprise have tended to emanate from two broad theoretical viewpoints, modernisation theory and dependency theory,f which hold opposing views on the role the Stale can play in the promotion of business and enterprise. Considerations of the relationship between the State and an indigenous class of entrepreneurs have tended to centre on notions of ‘modernising’ and the ‘modernisation’ of society. This article shifts the focus away from a concentration on modernising to a consideration of the nature of modernity. The tendency to equate modernisation and modernity is liable to conceal or misrepresent the activities of certain economic actors, in particular State personnel. Using elements of the institutional analysis of modernity developed by Giddens (1991), the article examines the ‘selectivity function’ of Irish State personnel and their relationship with potential Irish entrepreneurs. This selectivity function can be construed as an attempt to establish an expert system to enable State personnel to assert some control over the enterprise culture juggernaut.