Brexit, business interests, and the politics of the Irish border

Abstract

Why did the longstanding relationship between businesses and politicians in the UK break down in the midst of arguably one of the most critical and business-sensitive sets of decisions ever in contemporary UK? This paper explores this puzzle in light of the politics of the Irish border. The case of the Irish border is particularly interesting to study because it illustrates how a variety of actors, governmental as well as business actors, apparently shunned “rational” courses to pursue strategies that did not appear to serve their economic or political interest. We argue that this puzzle can only be solved by placing political contestation to the center of analysis, and examining its implication for the way businesses understood and pursued their interests. Based on primary data drawn from a range of Irish business organizations, we explore the crystallization of regional business interests in a context of high contestation and contrasted access to political actors across the border, North and South of the border. Our analysis contributes to the emerging literature on the social construction of business interests.