Education and Groupthink in the Irish Banking Guarantee of 2008

• In Event: Campaigns and Crises in Ireland

Abstract

The role of higher education systems in the formation and reproduction of governing elites has been an enduring subject of concern. This paper employs elite formation quantitative indices to examine the role of the higher education system in the formation of the elite (cabinet ministers, civil servants, advisors and bankers) who decided that the state should guarantee the debits of the banks on 29 September 2008. Specifically, the paper seeks to investigate if there is an underlying cohesiveness and lack of diversity to the elite, and if the decision this elite group made was subject to groupthink.

Authors

• John W. Hogan, Technological University Dublin

• Sharon Mary Feeney, Dublin Institute of Technology

• Brendan K. O'Rourke, Dublin Institute of Technology