ECPR thanks outgoing Executive Committee and Chair

Luciano Bardi officially completed his term as Chair of the ECPR on April 18, 2012 at the end of the Council Meeting in Antwerp. He had been elected Chair during the Joint Sessions at Lisbon in 2009. He was the first Italian to hold the Chair since Giorgio Freddi in what must seem to many people now as the mists of time. He was also the first Chair of the ECPR to delay a hip replacement operation for the sake of ECPR

This typified his commitment to and belief in the ECPR, a product of ongoing participation in ECPR activities that long pre-dated his election to the Executive Committee in 2006. The ECPR is in his blood, and becoming Chair of the ECPR was, therefore, a particular honour for him, and he was determined to make lasting changes for the better.

As he outlined to the Council meeting at Antwerp, Luciano successfully built on two achievements of his predecessor, Mick Cox, who had started two processes, one internal (creating an informal senior management team) and one external (building the ECPR’s profile internationally). Under Luciano, these two processes were expanded and consolidated.

There is now a formal Senior Management Team which has responsibilities for various aspects of management and without which it is now difficult to envisage a well-functioning ECPR. This small group coordinates and acts on issues arising, while remaining clearly accountable to the Executive Committee as a whole. At the same time, the global reach of ECPR has expanded in terms of its membership and geographic scope of activities. The ECPR has now hosted in Sao Paulo and will host in Montreal. Under Luciano the ECPR has established very close relations with APSA and there is in place now the basis for the development of common exchanges and possible projects. The global reach of the ECPR has been a real signature policy of his term as Chair.

In addition, the very scale of activities has been markedly increased with the General Conference going annual, the re-launch of the Research Sessions and the launch of the Winter School. And all of this was achieved while the portfolio of publications activities continued to grow and ECPR Press was significantly expanded. The ECPR is now an academic association virtually unrivalled in the world in terms of its range of activities and services offered to members and beyond.

Luciano was also acutely aware that delivering an expanding number of high quality services and benefits made it imperative that the administrative heart of the ECPR was up to the job. On this front, Luciano was confronted with severe and unexpected challenges in terms of the staffing difficulties that surfaced in Central Services (CS) in 2009-10. Yet, not only did he deal with these difficulties courageously, resolutely and fairly, but, once they were settled, he also saw in these difficulties an opportunity to try and improve things for the future. Following a review of Central Services, a process of change and reform was embarked upon (extending also to the website), which is slowly transforming the structure and professional capacity of CS. There is a sense of renewal and reinvigoration in CS, a direct consequence of Luciano’s determination to put in place new working arrangements both inside Central Services and between CS and the Executive Committee.

He saw, moreover, the manner in which the Central Services was closely integrated with broader issues of governance, and therefore set up a Governance Review Group which proposed reforms (including the replacement of the posts of Administrative and Academic Directors with a single Director) on which the Official Representatives will be voting this summer. These achievements, largely unplanned in 2009, will nonetheless be some of the lasting legacies of the Bardi Chairship.

There is of course still much work to do, but Luciano passes on to his successor, Simona Piattoni, an ECPR which is increasingly strong and stable in its governance and international in its outlook. He was also very conscious of the importance of laying a roadmap for his successor to assess and potentially follow, which is contained in the 60 recommendations of the Strategic Review produced for the Antwerp Council Meeting.

Finally, if Luciano would object to anything in this news item it would probably be on the emphasis it gives to the Chair alone. Luciano operated collectively and collegially throughout his Chairship and it placed the Executive Committee in a very strong position not only to achieve a great deal but to respond resolutely to challenges which might otherwise have threatened its unity. The Chair is dependent on his or her Executive Committee if he or she is to be successful, and this Executive Committee responded magnificently to the ECPR’s needs in this period. For this reason, at Antwerp Luciano recorded his immense gratitude and thanks to the other members of the Executive Committee for their work and cooperation in making the last three years such a success: Vello Pettai, Klaus Armingeon, Eileen Connolly, Danica Fink-Hafner, Andre Kaiser, William Maloney, Niilo Kauppi, Simona Piattoni, Jonas Tallberg, Jacob Torfing and Manuel Sanchez De Dios.

Some of these members are not leaving yet, others are. And so we wish Vello, Klaus, Eileen, Danica, William, Jacob and, of course, Luciano himself all the best in their ‘retirement’ from official ECPR duties, but hope to see them regularly as active participants in future ECPR events and activities.