Paul G. Buchanan and Kate Nicholls explore the political and economic fortunes of organised labour in five small open democracies between 1975 and 2000. Of particular interest is the role of labour market institutions, organisational histories, and trade union ideologies in shaping outcomes under conditions of economic liberalisation. The book includes a theoretical and methodological introduction, followed by individual discussions of Australia and Chile, and New Zealand and Uruguay, grouped a cross-regional pairs, and Ireland as an extra-regional and atypical case.

Amongst the most serious consequences of the 2008 global financial collapse and sovereign debt crisis were a series of unprecedented international bailouts for Greece, Ireland, and Portugal between 2010 and 2011.

This book analyses the development policies of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal between 1990 and 2008, before the Eurozone crisis. It identifies national-level differences between the policy strategies and outcomes that have characterized recent developments in the Greek, Irish, and Portuguese political economies. In addition, it provides an explanation for these differences...