Secular Authority: Economists in Irish Public Discourse

This paper explores how the authority of Economics Experts has developed over time in Ireland. The identity of ‘expert’ serves as a powerful authority device for an individual’s discourse (Montgomery 2008). Although the definition of who is considered an expert has become broader and more inclusive (Collins and Evans 2007), the authority derived from the label of expert is usually reserved for Contributory Experts (Collins, Evans, and Weinel 2016). This authority has traditionally allowed such experts to engage with society from a position of authority and prestige that is not afforded to other societal actors. Such authority has been acknowledged of economists, whose discourse appears to have an assumed legitimacy (Maesse 2015). Theoretically, this research draws from a number of areas including work on the identity of experts in general (Montgomery, 2008) on economics experts in particular (Maesse, 2015), professionalization both generally (Macdonald, 1995) and of economics in particular (Fourcade, 2009). The Irish context is of interest more generally it was a prominent crisis, yet speedily recovering country in the Eurozone crisis, is a small peripheral state and is a site of confluence between Anglo-American and European influences. Its close relationships with both the UK and the United States are particular interesting for an examination of the relationships between national and international influences on economists in a society.