Inaugurated in 2004, the award is given each year for papers presented on French politics at the previous year’s meeting. Papers may be comparative as long as a significant part focuses on France.
This year’s winner was Emily Olivia Matthews, University of California, San Diego, for her paper "Should We Go Steady? Patterns of Cooperative Lobbying Behavior among Forestry Advocacy Groups in France and Sweden."
The paper was selected from a pool of 21 papers that were available for download. The selection was based on the schedule of the French Politics Group at the 2009 APSA meeting and a search in the APSA database for papers that included “France” or “French” in their abstracts. The committee’s ranking was based on the following three criteria: (1) originality and scope; (2) quality of the data and methods; and (3) overall clarity and structure of the paper. On this basis, we each selected five top papers.
Among several strong papers that the committee considered, Emily’s paper was the only one that each committee member considered as being either the top or the second best paper of the lot. What made Emily’s paper clearly stand out as the winner was the originality and relevance of the research problem and of the theoretical argument being proposed, as well as the clarity and the quality of the writing. The theory and the research design are both solid and well developed. The interview-based evidence presented in the paper is convincing, although the committee would have preferred a more rigorous test of the author’s expectations. Despite it being still a work in progress, the committee found the paper to be innovative, and the policy terrain to be new and unique. With this award, the committee wishes to recognize this very stimulating and promising research project.
2010 Award Committee: Simon Bornschier (University of Zurich); Eric Belanger (University of Montreal); Michael Bosia (St. Michael’s College)
2011 Award Committee: Kimberly Morgan, (George Washington University); Emily Olivia Matthews (University of California, San Diego); Antoine Roger (SPIRIT, IEP Bordeaux)
The French Politics Group (FPG) awards a prize for the best dissertation on contemporary (twentieth and twentieth-first century) French politics (or with a significant component on French politics). The prize, co-sponsored by the FPG and French Politics, Culture & Society, brings with it an award of $100 (and great prestige). Previous winners have reached the highest levels of this profession—in the spirit of Georges Lavau.
The award was first made in 1993 and is given every three years. Previous awardees include:
The next award will be made in 2011 for English-language dissertations defended between January 2008 and December 2010. Dissertation advisors and/or candidates themselves must submit ONE ELECTRONIC COPY of the nominated dissertation before the deadline of June 15, 2011. Self-nominations are accepted. Please address individual copies of nominated dissertations to FPG assistant, John Branstetter at john.branstetter@email.wsu.edu. Questions about the award may be addressed to the FPG office as well. The award committee includes: Virginie Guiraudon (CERAPS, Université de Lille 2); Jonathan Laurence (Boston College); and Alistair Cole (Cardiff University).
See our website for complete versions of some of the dissertations from past award years.
Administered by the FPG with the AFSP and financed by Sciences Po Paris, this award is given every other year to the best English-language article on French Politics published in any peer reviewed journal during the previous two years. The award was first given in 2007. Articles may be on any aspect of French Politics and the selection committee consults a full range of journals that publish scholarship on French Politics. Prize money is 1900 euros and the recipient is required to accept the award at the annual APSA meetings the year the award is made. For the list of abstracts and journals consulted, go to the FPG website, http://www.wsu.edu/~frg/. Articles published in 2009 and 2010 will considered for the 2011 award. This year’s awards committee includes: John Gaffney (Aston University); Jonah Levy (University California, Berkeley); Annie Laurent (CERAPS).
181 articles published in 2007 and 2008 were consider in 99 different journals; 139 journals were searched. Award Committee: Frank Baumgartner (Penn State University); Jocelyn Evans (University of Salford); Sophie Duschesne (CEVIPOF).
Recipient: Eliza Ferguson (University of New Mexico) “Domestic Violence by Another Name: Crimes of Passion in Fin-de-Siècle Paris” Journal of Women's History. Volume 19, Number 4, Winter 2007.
223 articles published in 2005 through 2006 were considered from 112 refereed journals. The committee was comprised of Stanley Hoffmann--Chair (Harvard University), Gérard Grunberg (Sciences Po Paris), Pierre Hassner (Sciences Po Paris). The committee selected the following three winners, with the top prize going to James Shields.
James Shields (University of Warwick) for his January 2006 article in Parliamentary Affairs, “Political Representation in France: A Crisis of Democracy?”
David Yost (US Naval Postgraduate School) for his June 2006 article in International Affairs, “France’s New Nuclear Doctrine”
Elaine Thomas (Bard College) for her March 2006 article in Ethnic and Racial Studies, “Keeping Identity at A Distance: Explaining France’s New Legal Restrictions on the Islamic Headscarf”.