Winner of this year's Rudolf Wildenmann Prize announced

The winner of the 2018 Rudolf Wildenmann Prize is Philipp Lutz, Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Universität Bern.

His prizewinning paper Dynamic Partisan Effects in Migration was presented at the 2018 Joint Sessions of Workshops in Nicosia.

Philipp's article analyses the effects of partisanship on migration policies over time.

Immigration is commonly considered a cross-cutting issue which divides mainstream parties internally. However, given the increased politicisation of the issue in electoral competition and the subsequent realignment of West European party systems, one would expect increasing partisan divides with more distinct policies between left- and right-wing governments.

Over the same time, economic globalisation and political internationalisation have increasingly limited the policy space for national governments. Philipp’s article tests the politicisation and the globalisation hypothesis with a cabinet-based dataset of migration policy changes from 1980 to 2014 across 18 West European countries.

His results reveal the dynamic nature of partisanship, and confirm the realignment of migration policies with increasing divergence between left-wing and right-wing governments over time.

However, his results also show substantial variation between different dimensions of migration policy. In immigration policy, governments implemented more liberal policies over time, independent of government ideology. In integration policy, the study finds significant polarisation over time.

Philipp’s findings provide important insights into the dynamics of partisan effects and migration policy-making in times of globalisation.

Philipp will receive his award during the Joint Sessions of Workshops at the Université catholique de Louvain, Mons, in April 2019.

Our Jury's verdict

‘The theme of Philipp’s paper is topical, with broad relevance to the concerns of the discipline, and it makes an important contribution to existing scholarly literature on the dynamics of partisan influence in migration policy.

Philipp’s paper is focused, methodologically strong, and well written and constructed. His conclusions suggest a rich vein of research for future exploration.’

In his own words

'To be awarded the Rudolf Wildenmann Prize is a great honour and an enormous encouragement for a young scholar like me, particularly since the paper on partisan dynamics is located at the core of my continuous interest in how international migration affects mass politics in liberal democracies. The ECPR Joint Sessions are an excellent environment for intense scholarly exchange that has contributed to the improvement of my research.'

Keywords: Migration