Business and Agricultural Responses to Cross-Border Cooperation

Abstract

The previous chapters outlined the changes which have occurred in the background to the cross-border relationship since the foundation of the Irish and Northern Irish states in 1922. The core question is whether these background changes have increased cross-border cooperation. Much of the apparent impetus for increased cooperation rests on an appeal to economic rationality. For both neo-functionalists and functionalists, economic groups were highly significant in stimulating political cooperation (see Chapter 1). Hence, assuming the existence of common economic interests between farmers and business groups on both sides of the border, it might be expected that economic cooperation might increase