New Speaker of Council elected

We're delighted to announce that Thomas Poguntke has been elected as the ECPR's new Speaker of Council. He will serve a three-year term. 

Thomas is Chair of Comparative Politics and Director of the Düsseldorf Party Research Institute at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (PRuF).

He graduated from LSE, obtained his PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and wrote his professorial thesis at the University of Mannheim.

Before moving to Düsseldorf in 2010 he held chairs at the universities of Keele, Birmingham and Bochum. In Birmingham he was Director of the Institute for German Studies (IGS).

Thomas has been a Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and at the Australian National University. 

His research interests include the comparative study of political parties and regimes, European integration and German politics.

He was series editor of the Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science and co-editor of German Politics, and is author and editor of numerous publications on political parties and comparative politics, including

The Presidentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies
Oxford University Press 2005; with Paul D. Webb

The Europeanization of National Political Parties 
London/New York: Routledge edited 2007 with Nicholas Aylott, Elisabeth Carter, Robert Ladrech and Kurt Richard Luther

Organizing Political Parties: Representation, Participation and Power
Oxford University Press, 2017 edited with Susan E. Scarrow and Paul D. Webb

Speaking to us on the occasion of his appointment, Thomas said:

'ECPR is European integration at its best – bringing people together, stimulating research and teaching, being open to participation from outside Europe. I am very grateful that I can contribute to this ongoing success story by serving as Speaker of the Council for the coming years.'

ECPR Council

The ECPR Council is made up of one Official Representative from each Member institution of the ECPR. It meets annually to discuss new plans with the Executive Committee and to hold it to account for its actions.

Thomas replaces outgoing Speaker David Farrell of University College Dublin.

Keywords: Comparative Politics, European Politics