Stein Rokkan Prize

The annual Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research is presented by the International Science Council (ISC), the University of Bergen and the ECPR. Thanks to the generosity of the University of Bergen, it now carries a prize fund of €5,000.

The prize is open to works in comparative studies from all social science disciplines. It is given to a submission deemed by the Jury to be a substantial and original contribution in comparative social science research.

Nominations for the 2025 award will open in January 2025.

About Stein Rokkan

Stein Rokkan was a pioneer of comparative political and social science research, renowned, among other things, for his groundbreaking work on the nation state and democracy.

A brilliant researcher and a professor at the University of Bergen, where he spent most of his career, Rokkan was also president of the International Social Science Council (an organisation that merged to form the ISC in 2018), and one of the founder members of the ECPR.

Nominations open: January 2025
Nominations close: TBC

Nominations for the 2025 award will open in January 2025.

Submitting a nomination

To nominate, please use the Nomination Form which will display at the top of this page during the nomination period.

Nominations can be made by scientific institutions (including Universities and Departments, Research Centres, Academies, disciplinary unions or associations and Research Institutions), and should come via the head of the organisation/department.

Only one nomination may be received per institution. Institutions do not need to be members of either the ISC or ECPR.

Nominations must include, as three separate PDF files:

Formal nomination letter expressing support of the nominee's candidacy for this award (Document 1)
Biography of the candidate including an outline of their work and research interests (Document 2)
Book title and year of publication (Document 2)
A PDF copy of the book (Document 3) (please note this must be a searchable PDF)

Eligibility

The Stein Rokkan Prize is open to candidates from all social science disciplines, who need not be affiliated with a Member institution of either the ISC or ECPR.
The work should be a substantial and original contribution to comparative social science research.
The work must be a published monograph. Unpublished manuscripts, edited collections, and collected works are not eligible.
The book must have been published within the two calendrical years preceding the award. For the Stein Rokkan Prize 2024, books must have been published in 2022 or 2023. No book should be nominated in more than one year.
The work should preferably be in English; however, a submission written in another language can be nominated as long as it is accompanied by an English summary of the work.

After the closing date for nominations, publishers may be asked to provide copies of the book in alternative formats for the members of the jury.

Exclusions

Self-nominations are not accepted.
Nominations from publishers and agencies are not accepted.
Members of the ECPR Executive Committee, ISC Governing Board and Secretariat, and ECPR Editors are not eligible for this prize during their term and for a certain buffer period afterwards.
- Members of the Executive Committee and ISC Governing Board become eligible after three buffer years, the ISC Secretariat and ECPR editors after one. The requirement that a work have been published in the previous two years may be waived in this case.

Jury

The Jury for this prize is Chaired by a member of the ECPR Executive Committee, and includes a representative from the Universitetet i Bergen and the ISC, as well as two other eminent scholars in the field of social science.

The Jury for 2024 comprised:

Amy Verdun, Chair, member of the Executive Committee, University of Victoria
Kristin Strømsnes, University of Bergen
Marta Arretche, University of São Paulo
Amy G. Mazur, Washington State University
Dimiter Toshkov, Leiden University

The jury for 2025 will be confirmed.