Best Book Award (2025)

The IPPA Best Book Award is awarded biennially and given to a single- or co-authored monograph that makes an original and significant theoretical, methodological and/or empirical contribution to the field of Public Policy and/or Public Administration.

Factors to be considered in the selection of the award winner include: contribution to the development of the fields, excellence in writing and communication, scholarly innovation and rigor; and critical acclaim (in scholarly domain or public affairs).

The prize is open to works by both academic and non-academic authors. The nominated book must have been published by a university or commercial publisher in the preceding two years (the prize awarded in 2025 will be for a book published in 2023 or 2024, year of publication being the year as stated in the book).

The monograph may be single- or jointly- authored. Edited books are not eligible.

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 of 5,000-7,000 words.

Self-nomination by authors is allowed but self-nominations must be accompanied by another supporting letter from an academic and/or policy researcher in a scholarly institution or research centre.

IMPORTANT DATES

Call for nominations: until December 18, 2024
Results: February 28, 2025

Winner

William Genieys

Research Porfessor CNRS

William Genieys is a CNRS research professor of sociology and political science at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) at Sciences Po. Influenced by Professor Juan Linz of Yale University, he developed a comparative, interdisciplinary, theoretical, and methodological approach to the study of elites that has guided my career as a scholar. In 2013, his research was awarded the Prix d’Excellence Scientifique for researchers under the age of 50 by the Association Française de Science Politique (AFSP) and the Mattei Dogan Foundation.

He has published more than ten books, including the textbook: Sociologie politique des élites (A. Colin, 2011) and The New Custodians of the State (2010), as well as the co-authored work (with Darviche), Elites, Policies, and Sate Reconfiguration. Transforming the French Welfare Regime (2023). His A Government of Insiders (JHUP, 2024) is the culmination of his theorization of the role of unelected governmental elites in liberal democracy. He has published several articles in international, peer-reviewed journals, including Comparative Politics, European Journal of Sociology, European Policy Analysis, Governance, International Political Science Review, French Politics, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Academic Psychiatry, Medical Education, and the Revista de Estudios Politicos.

He was also the principal investigator of several projects, including one with the French National Research Agency: OPERA, and one with German PI Nils Bandelow (Brunswig U.), funded by the German and French research agencies (ANR/DGF): the project ProAcTA. Currently, he is launching a new research program on Deviant Elites in American Democracy. From Democratic Elitism to Populist Elitism in the Trump Era (DEAD).

Winner

Lucio Picci

Professor

Lucio Picci is a Full Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Bologna. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, where he specialized in econometrics and completed his dissertation under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert Engle. His interest in quantitative methods has been a consistent theme throughout his career, as reflected also in his book Rethinking Corruption. His research has focused on corruption, distributive politics, and public governance, with a particular emphasis on technological innovation. Over time, his work has become increasingly multidisciplinary. Rethinking Corruption marks the culmination of this broadening of both research interests and methodologies. He has published in leading journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Research Policy, and The World Bank Economic Review. His 2011 book, Reputation-based Governance, was published by Stanford University Press. In addition to his academic work, Lucio Picci has drawn on professional experience outside academia, having worked with or consulted for institutions including the European Commission, the World Bank, the United Nations, and various branches of the Italian government, such as the Prime Minister’s Office and the Italian Anti-Corruption Authority.

Paul Cairney

University of Stirling

Giliberto Capano

Università di Bologna

Laura Chaques Bonafont

Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals

Federico Toth

Università di Bologna

William Genieys, A Government of Insiders: Rethinking Corruption. Reasons Behind the Failure of Anti-Corruption Efforts. Genieys presents an impressive, ambitious, and engaging long-term account of the social backgrounds of US elites, backed by considerable research to quantify their number and profile. Genieys offers an original interpretation of Obama's healthcare reform as an alternative to the mainstream “political bargain” interpretation and of Heclo's ‘government of strangers’, explaining the role played in the reform process by senior bureaucrats in the US administration.

Lucio Picci, Rethinking Corruption. Reasons Behind the Failure of Anti-Corruption Efforts. Picci presents a novel and convincing argument about the vagueness and social construction of corruption, coupled with a focus on its use as a ‘tool of government’. Picci deals with a very important subject in an original way, drawing on wide-ranging, multidisciplinary theoretical references, in a well-structured and well-written book.