Tijdens het jaarlijkse Politicologenetmaal is de Jaarprijs Politicologie voor de beste dissertatie uitgereikt. De winnaars dit jaar zijn ex aequo

• Ruth Dassonneville for her dissertation on electoral volatility;
• Paul van Hooft for his research on the impact of victory and defeat in war.

From the report of the jury NKWP/VPW Jaarprijs Politicologie:

“Not one but two dissertations were considered serious candidates for the “Jaarprijs”. These dissertations deal with very different topics and have very different forms – a “traditional” monography versus a collection of articles. Both dissertations, however, clearly stand out from the group; both in terms of the contributions they make to their respective sub-disciplines and the contribution they make to field of political science at large.

The first dissertation deals with electoral volatility and analyses its implications for representative democracy. (….)The dissertation is based on no less than 11 empirical chapters; the majority published in key journals within the discipline. This exceptional richness caused one jury member to comment that the candidate “did not write one but three dissertations”.

The second dissertation deals with war and peace and investigates the impact of the Second World War on the “grand strategies” of contemporary Britain, France, Germany and the United States. Exploring the concepts of “memory” and “myth-making”, the dissertation injects trauma and sentiment into the international relations literature and, while doing so, yields invaluable insights into the ways in which countries’ attempts to “not make the same mistake twice” causes them, in fact, to explore viable alternative – if not better – international strategies. These insights are not only of great value to the political science discipline but they will equally be of interest to political commentators and the general public.

The exceptionally high quality of these dissertations and the important – yet incomparable – contributions they make to the discipline created an impasse within the jury. One that can best be described by the Dutch saying: “Kiezen is verliezen”. Choosing one over the other would result to nothing else but a loss. (…)

We also want to congratulate the University of Leuven and the University of Amsterdam and, in particular, the supervisors of both dissertations, Professor Marc Hooghe and Professor Brian Burgoon, respectively.”