The Rutger Lindahl Award

Lena Debanck

Masterstudenten Lena Debanck får 5 000 kronor i prispengar för sin uppsats Arctic exceptionalism under scrutiny. A qualitative content analysis of the increasing securitization in the European Arctic. 

Juryns motivering:

"This thesis, which is a qualitative content analysis of the increasing securitization in the European Arctic, is an excellent study of the present-day geopolitical situation in the most northern parts of Europe. The European Arctic, as defined by the European Environment Agency, is a border region that was considered an iron curtain between West and East during the Cold War. Perestroika changed it into a zone of peace and a region governed by consensus through international collaboration, focusing on environmental cooperation, “Arctic exceptionalism”. In 2023 the geopolitical situation in Europe has challenged the conditions, the collaborations, such as the Arctic Council, are paused.

The overall aim is to critically study the effects of the Russian war on Ukraine regarding the conception of “Arctic exceptionalism”. The results show that securitisation questions have become more important, not least for the Nordic countries. The idea of the Arctic as an exceptional space for global cooperation has been called into question. The analysis of official policies on the Arctic 2020-2022 highlights with clarity that the tendency towards securitization differs a little between the policies of Nordic states (Finland – lack of cooperation; Sweden – threatened political stability; Denmark – threatened sovereignty; Norway and Island – NATO’s role). The thesis is very well founded in research and theory. The analysis is carried through in a clear, reflectively, and convincing way."

Imke Pohl

Masterstudenten Imke Pohl får 5 000 kronor i prispengar för sin uppsats FORGED IN CRISIS? Assessing the EU’s Evolving Actorness in Energy Security in Light of Energy Supply Crises.

Juryns motivering:

"Imke Pohl’s master thesis deals EU's evolving actorness in energy security considering geopolitical tensions between Europe and its neighbouring countries. The thesis topic has both theoretical and societal/political relevance. The author provides a thorough and well-reflected review of the literature on actorness in the context of the European Union and energy security. The author navigates safely through this highly complex literature and manages to distill and present the most relevant arguments in an elegant way.

Research questions are clearly formulated and justified. The thesis applies process-tracing, a qualitative research method that examines the sequence of events that lead to a particular phenomenon, which is well suited for the purpose of the thesis. The analysis is structured according to different crises in the European energy supply (the 2009 gas disruption, the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine). The results are clearly presented. The analysis discusses various steps taken by the EU in dealing with energy security and how different crises (the 2009 gas disruption, the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) have impacted EU actors. It reveals that crises led the EU to increase its decision-making power and energy security capabilities.

The findings are discussed with constant recurrence to theory. The result section provides a thorough and in-depth exploration of and clear answers to the research questions. Overall, the thesis covers a highly relevant and current topic, is well written and structured, and is carried out in an academically thorough way. The findings are interesting for scholars in European Studies and related disciplines, who are interested in EU energy and security policy. Overall, this is an excellent thesis which does not leave much room for improvement."

Uppsatsens titel: FIT & FAIR FOR 55? A frame analysis of fairness arguments on the EU’s 2021 emission reduction proposals within the Council of the European Union.

Juryns motivering på engelska:

Katharina Pfeffers thesis ‘Fit & Fair for 55. A frame analysis of fairness arguments on the EU’s 2021 emission reduction proposals within the Council of the European Union’ is innovative, well-researched and well-written. The thesis analyse how EU Member States invoke and frame different fairness principles and how they thereby cluster argumentatively around the issue of GHG-reduction in the Fit for 55-package. The aim and scope is ambitious, but the author manages to condense her material and literature into a thoughtful analysis on the complexitities of GHG-reduction negotiations in the EU. Most of the time the author remains at the macro level, but she also offers more detailed examples of how the country level context shape the framing in the council. The topic is highly relevant for European Studies, in order to further understand the negotiation dynamics between different countries of the EU, with a specific focus on GHG-emissions and the Council of the European Union. The EU Fit for 55 approach will have enormous impact on the member states, both politically and not the least industrially, and this thorough study certainly makes a vala uable contribution to the academic literature, and may also in fact has significant policy implications. 

Uppsatsens titel: European Migration Policy. The new Pact on Asylum and Migration through the lens of human rights compliance and solidarity

Juryns motivering på engelska:

The justification for the award is twofold. The author not only reached high academic standards in thesis’s production, but also address extremely important societal problem, i.e. the migration policy response of the EU after 2015. In order to do so, Finja analysed “The new asylum package” that has been published by the European Commission in September 2020, and compared this new solution with the previous approach by “identifying the internal differences between CEAS policies and the pact in terms of human rights compliance, accountability and interstate and state-migrant solidarity”. The uniqueness of the thesis is reflected in the sophistication of theoretical approach, where the theory of normative power (Manners 2002) and the just securitisation theory by Floyd (2017) were combined. It also relates to the methodological complexity and rigor as the author utilized single case study approach which resulted in conducting qualitative content analysis of abovementioned policy documents, supplemented by seven qualitative expert interviews, that have been further analysed the author. Finally, the societal significance of the thesis results from its innovative approach, as this is most likely one of the first scientific analysis of the New Pact that have ever been performed in the area of European Studies, which makes F

Uppsatsens titel: Welfare chauvinism, a privilege of the wealthy? A cross-country study on the effect of socioeconomic status and social spending on welfare chauvinism

Juryns motivering på engelska:

This thesis offers a strong theoretical and methodological framework and draws important conclusions based on research on a highly relevant topic to European politics. The thesis contributes to the literature on correlates of attitudes towards welfare and immigration across Europe by looking at two predictors of welfare chauvinism and at variation between countries with low and high social spending. In particular, the thesis answers three research questions:

• How does individuals’ socioeconomic status affect welfare chauvinistic attitudes?

• How does a country’s level of social spending affect its residents’ welfare chauvinistic attitudes?

• To what extent does a country’s social spending affect the relationship between its residents’ socioeconomic status and welfare chauvinism?

The thesis conducts an analysis of survey data and country-level data to evaluate these questions. In so doing, the thesis relies on quantitative analysis, specifically regression analysis. Based on the nature of the dependent variable, a multinomial logistic (MNL) model is chosen. Overall, this is a very well conducted thesis that contributes to the knowledge in the research field.

Uppsatsens titel: A transnational cleavage across the Bosporus? The Role of Globalizing Forces in Turkish Politics 

Juryns motivering på engelska: 

In this thesis, the author tests theory on transnational cleavage caused by globalization, which has been tested and developed mainly in a European context, on a new case: Turkey, thus capturing an interesting research interest in the Turkish case, while at the same time the even more interesting underlying critical question: is transnational cleavage theory a European thing – or not?

Two hypotheses are formulated and tested against data from the Global Party Survey Database and the Manifesto Project. As the hypotheses are only partially confirmed, the analysis engages in discussion on the possible reasons for this as well as identifies avenues for further research based on the results.

The thesis addresses a new, highly interesting case to test established theory on. It yields interesting results in that the case partly follows predictions from theory, and partly displays results that are almost diametrically opposed to predictions. This is all well described, and discussed by the author in an extremely well written masters-thesis.

Uppsatsens titel: EU-migration as a Distant Root of Brexit? The Synthetic Control Method Applied to Euroscepticism in the UK

Juryns motivering på engelska: 

"In his thesis, the author conceptualizes EU migration as an underlying reason for British Euroscepticism, which is a very timely and relevant subject. The thesis empirically tests the effect of the EU-8 migration inflow to the UK following the Eastern Enlargement in 2004 on public support for European integration in the British electorate by applying an innovative method specifically designed for small-N comparative case studies – the synthetic control approach. With a theoretically well-grounded foundation, the innovative analytical and methodological approach offers a valuable contribution to two research fields. Firstly, by expanding accounts on Euroscepticism with theoretical arguments on public responsiveness, it explores the effect of an outcome of a concrete policy decision on public support for European integration. It thereby provides a new framework for understanding Brexit by explaining the magnitude and persistence of Eurosceptic views in the British public. Secondly, the thesis contribute more broadly to the methodological discussion in the research field of public responsiveness. By the contra-factual synthetic control approach, the thesis presents a way forward for statistically identifying public responsiveness."

Uppsatsens titel: The European Union and China in the Economic Security Challenge

Juryns motivering på engelska:

"The MAES-thesis The European Union and China in the Economic Security Challenge by Lucie Buttkus, is proposed for The Rutger Lindahl Award 2018. Lucie’s thesis examines the EU-China trade relationship from the theoretical perspective of realism, with an emphasis on the importance of anarchy and trust for this strategic partnership. Trade is an area of European integration that has historically been difficult empirical terrain for realist theory, but Lucie’s thesis makes a careful and compelling case for its usefulness in understanding the dynamics of the EU and China’s blend of cooperation and competition in the realm of trade over the first two decades of the 21st century. The thesis therefore stands out for its innovative and productive application of a theoretical framework developed and most often tested in security studies within the context of EU trade policy. Lucie uses a game theoretical framework to generate testable hypotheses, which she then examines via qualitative process tracing of documents recorded within the World Trade Organization. The resulting thesis is outstanding in the quality of its social scientific research and directly addresses the strategic relationship between two large economic powers that will be of increasing relevance in the future. It is an ideal combination of theoretical and methodological rigor and policy-relevant research."

Titel på uppsatsen: Not Indicted, and Yet They Do Care - Why EU Governments file Observations to Cases before the ECJ

Juryns motivering på engelska:

"This thesis addresses a blank spot in the research on legal integration in Europe, namely the role of member state governments in the preliminary reference procedure of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). Dederke argues that while previous research has found that governments’ participation matter to the decisions of the CJEU, there is large variation in the willingness of governments to participate in the procedure. The research question he addresses therefore is how to explain when and why governments decide to participate and contribute to the development of EU case law. In order to generate hypotheses Dederke fruitfully turns to the American judicial politics literature. Furthermore, he finds an ingenious way of solving the tricky question of operationalizing ‘political preferences’, by combing two datasets on decision making in the Council and the CJEU. He finds that political preferences and legal considerations both contribute to the decision to participate in the court procedures. His research contributes to important normative questions regarding the role of non-majoritarian institutions in European integration. The quality of his work is indicated also by the fact that the thesis was selected for, and presented at, the most important political science conference in Europe, the ECPR General Conference in Prague, 8-10 September 2016, and that it has contributed to give him a position as a PhD student at the most prestigious university in Switzerland (ETH)."

Uppsatsens titel: Reconsidering the EU's 'democratic deficit' - A Deliberative Perspective

Juryns motivering på engelska:

"The thesis is an original, theory-driven reconsideration of the long-lasting question on whether and how the EU suffers from a ‘democratic deficit’. It is argued that the EU should be treated as an entity sui generis, and that the democracy deficit question should be explored accordingly. Inspired by the German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas the thesis sets out from a deliberative democracy theory perspective, and develops an innovative analytical framework based on the normative cornerstones of deliberative theory. Operationalized as ten minimal necessary conditions for a deliberative democratic political system, the analytical framework is then applied to the economic governance structure of the EU that evolved in the course of the Eurozone crisis. It is concluded that these demanding criteria are not satisfactorily met by the EU, since only two of ten conditions are fulfilled, and thus, that the EU suffers from a ‘deliberative deficit’. The distinguishing strength of the work lies in its theoretical import. While Christina profoundly grounds her work in previous research, she convincingly presents highly original, dedicated, and independent theorization of the political system of the EU, and its democratic potentials and deficiencies. Consequently, her work represents a significant scholarly contribution to the research of the democracy deficit in the EU."

Uppsatsens titel: A Political Bellwether? The European Commission’s Interaction with the Court of Justice of the European Union under the Preliminary Ruling Procedure

Juryns motivering på engelska:

"The thesis examines the role of the Commission in the legal order of the European Union (EU), and is of clear relevance to European Studies by deepening our understanding of two pivotal EU institutions. Focusing particularly on the EU’s migration and asylum policy, the thesis combines relevance for European studies with policy questions that are of great political and social importance for Europe today. The author interrogates the ‘political bellwether’ understanding of the Commission’s interaction with the Court of Justice in the preliminary ruling procedure by asking if the Commission’s written observations are best understood as an indicator of political acceptability among the member states, or as developing EU law, and if the process of arriving at the Commission’s position in a preliminary ruling is driven primarily by political or legal considerations. The author tests the arguments with an innovative and original qualitative research design focusing on three cases from EU migration and asylum policy, “most likely” cases for when we would expect to see the Commission’s position act as a proxy for what is acceptable to the member states. The author conducted five semi-structured interviews with civil servants working in the Commission to generate original and informative data for analysis. The results support the author’s theoretical argument that the Commission does not act as a political bellwether in the preliminary ruling procedure, and the author integrates these findings with broader theoretical discussions in contemporary research on the political-legal aspects of European integration. This new primary research is well structured, eloquently written, and casts light on what would have been a more opaque political process between the Commission and the Court without this thesis."

Uppsatsens titel: Regulatory reform on the European gas market Does it make a difference

Juryns motivering på engelska:

"The infrastructure for distribution of natural gas in Europe gives returns to scale; therefore it could be argued that the gas market could have a tendency to develop into a natural monopoly. A privately managed private monopoly could be expected to have negative welfare effects due to high prices and low quality. Anticipating these potential negative welfare effects, during the last two decades regulatory measures has been employed by the EU to increase competition. Unbundling of energy companies stands out as one of the most important. This thesis analyses whether there is a causal relation between EU’s unbundling reforms and the price levels of gas. The thesis contributes an original combination of the economic theories of price mechanisms, with the concept of natural monopolies. Drawing on this theorization, it gives a well-written account of previous studies, which is especially meriting since it bring together otherwise separated research on prices of electricity and natural gas in Europe and the world. Empirically the thesis builds on a panel data model, based on fixed effects regressions, deploying Eurostat statistics. This model is sophisticated, and the author shows awareness of the model’s limitations. The result of the analysis resembles previous research, namely that there is no significant effect of the unbundling reforms on the prices. The only independent variable that has effects on the price of gas is the oil price. This leads to the conclusion that the natural gas market, until now, has been too dependent on the larger oil market to constitute a natural monopoly. Bringing together previously separate research, contributing original theorization and operationalization, deploying a very suitable and advanced statistical method on new large-N data, presenting a stringent very readable text which give evidence of a transparent and self-critical intellectual attitude, this thesis is a substantial academic input to the research on EU reforms for promoting competitiveness."

Uppsatsens titel: For Better or for Worse? Happiness among unemployed in 19 European countries - The effect of the economic crisis of 2008

Juryns motivering på engelska:

"This thesis studies the effect of unemployment on individual well-being, assessing how this effect is moderated by economic crises. The thesis finds that the economic crisis, with its rising unemployment rates, reduces the negative effect of unemployment on individual happiness/life-satisfaction. Maria argues that rising unemployment rates in Europe lead to a ‘normalization’ of unemployment, thus reducing the social stigma of joblessness. While this topic is obviously highly relevant in contemporary Europe, the thesis uses its timeliness to a striking methodological advantage. The thesis is outstanding in its use of the economic crisis in Europe as a “natural experiment”, studying individual attitudes before and during the onset of the crisis. The analysis is based on large-N quantitative methods, and applies sophisticated multi-level modelling techniques, which are very appropriate for the given data structure and research question. The distinguishing strength of the work, however, lies in its theoretical import. While Maria profoundly grounds her work in previous research, she convincingly presents an unexpected theoretical argument -- namely that increased levels of unemployment may in fact improve individual life-satisfaction. Consequently, her work represents a significant scholarly contribution to the research of the social and individual consequences of economic crisis and unemployment."