Andreas Juon's 'fascinating' thesis wins this year's Jean Blondel PhD Prize

Photo by Stefan Weiss

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2021 Jean Blondel PhD Prize is Andreas Juon, for his thesis Grievances, identity, and political opportunity: The effects of corporate and liberal power-sharing on ethnic conflict (University College London, 2020).

This annual prize, introduced in 2003, celebrates the best thesis in politics, broadly conceived to include international relations, political theory and public administration.

Since 2020, ECPR has presented its prizes virtually. We have therefore created this short video with Petra Meier, our Jury Chair, Andreas’ supervisors Kristin M. Bakke and Nils W. Metternich, and Andreas himself, to celebrate the occasion. 

About our winner

Andreas Juon completed his PhD in 2020 at University College London under the supervision of Kristin M. Bakke and Nils W. Metternich.

In his dissertation, he analyses the consequences of power-sharing arrangements for ethnic conflict. He argues that these should be understood in a triple-disaggregated manner, considering different institutional types of power-sharing, types of ethnic groups, and time horizons. The analysis relies on a new global dataset of constitutional power-sharing for 1945-2018, which he has collected and used in several published articles on the exclusion of micro-minorities and democratisation.

His most recent publication in this research stream, co-authored with Daniel Bochsler and published in European Political Science Review, considers the contradictory consequences of power-sharing institutions for key aspects of democratic quality in 70 democracies since the end of the Cold War. In several working papers, he further extends his research on the trade-offs entailed by attempts to institutionalise inter-ethnic peace. In this vein, he investigates the consequences of territorial autonomy both for civil and communal violence, focusing on the implications of how administrative boundaries are drawn. For this purpose, he relies on new spatial data he has collected, comprising subnational administrative boundaries since the Second World War.

He currently works as a postdoc in Lars-Erik Cederman's International Conflict Research group at ETH Zurich, having obtained funding from the ETH Fellows programme. In this ongoing project, he extends his PhD research by systematically examining ethnic majority mobilisation against minority accommodation since the end of the Cold War. Relatedly, he has also conducted prior research on the emergence of populist parties, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. An overview of Andreas' research programme and its background has previously appeared on ETH news.

@andijot

Our jury’s verdict

'Andreas Juon takes up a visible theoretical argument from the literature on a most relevant political issue and advances it both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, the thesis explores the trade-offs between different institutional power-sharing arrangements (corporate vs. liberal) in a very clear, sharp and yet accessible, way.

The doctoral dissertation is a show-case of an excellent construction of the main argument and red thread guiding the research, while at the same time being very accessible for non-informed readers, providing them with ample evidence illustrating the argument. Empirically, the doctoral dissertation tests the long-term consequences of distinct power-sharing arrangements on the basis of an amazing data integration effort and flawless empirical analyses.

…This study is ambitious in its width and depth, and innovative, providing fascinating insights on the implications of different power-sharing arrangements for peace in divided societies.'

In his own words

'I feel excited and very honoured at this privilege! I am extremely grateful for all the support which I received along the way to finishing this dissertation. Most importantly, this includes my incredibly helpful PhD supervisors, Kristin M. Bakke and Nils W. Metternich, and all my colleagues and friends at University College London, who have created an exceptionally warm and supportive environment.'

Our jury

• Petra Meier ECPR Vice-Chair, University of Antwerp (Jury Chair)
• David Farrell ECPR Chair, University College Dublin
• Thomas Zittel Goethe-University Frankfurt
• Elisa Volpi University of Geneva

Our shortlist

Congratulations also to our shortlisted candidates.

• Sofia Helen Breitenstein Gomis Attitudes towards corruption and their consequences on political behavior
• Anja Durovic The gender gap paradox: Citizenship, cohort change and the evolution of gender inequalities in political participation in Western Europe (1981-2016)
• Theres Matthieß Retrospective pledge voting: How voters punish government parties for breaking their election pledges
• Simon Varaine The compass of violence: Prosperity, decline and the ideological orientation of radical movements

Keywords: International Relations, Political Theory, Public Administration