Tracking the State in a Liberal Economy.

This paper takes an organizational approach to analysing the state, using Ireland as a case study. It outlines a new taxonomy of state organizations, capturing information about legal form, function, and policy domain; and it explains the logic behind the searchable Irish State Administration Database, in which information about both organizational features and organizational events is captured. Three facets of policy competences and state activity can thus be analysed over time: the evolution of state capacity overall, the nature of industrial development policy, and the uses made of state institutions in building coalitions of economic interests and consolidating electoral support.