The 2023 Ronald F. Inglehart Best Book Award on Political Culture and Values
The Ronald F. Inglehart Best Book Award on Political Culture and Values is awarded for a book which makes a substantial and original contribution to theory and/or empirical studies in comparative cross-cultural research. This prize is awarded every second year and honors the best book published in the previous five years following the tradition established by Ronald F. Inglehart. Results of the 2023 competition have now been announced.
First introduced in 2022, the Ronald F. Inglehart Best Book Award on Political Culture and Values is awarded for a book which makes a substantial and original contribution to theory and/or empirical studies in comparative cross-cultural research. The award recognizes original science research publications which both (i) develop theories capturing the contemporary zeitgeist and (ii) utilize large-scale cross-national survey data monitoring culture to test the comparative evidence. This prize is awarded every second year and honors the best book published in the previous five years following the tradition established by Ronald F. Inglehart. The award is funded jointly by the WVSA and the Inglehart Family. Nominations acceptance for 2023 award was open till May 31, 2023. In 2023, fifteen books have been nominated (including self-nominations) for this award:
- Bruter, Michael; Harrison, Sarah. Inside the Mind of a Voter: A New Approach to Electoral Psychology. Princeton University Press, 2020.
- Dellmuth, Lisa, Jan Aart Scholte, Jonas Tallberg, and Soetkin Verhaegen. Citizens, Elites, and the Legitimacy of Global Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
- Duffy, Bobby. The Generation Myth’. Basic Books, United States – 2021.
- García-Rivero, Carlos (ed.). Democracy Fatigue. An East European Epidemy. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2023.
- Gest, Justin. Majority Minority. Oxford University Press, 2022.
- Kortoshian, Raffi. The Endangered Christian Armenian Heritage of Artsakh. – Yerevan: Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation, 2022.
- Levy S. Barry. From Horror to Hope. Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War. Oxford University Press, 2022.
- Lu, Jie; Chu, Yun-han. Understandings of Democracy: Origins and Consequences Beyond Western Democracies. Oxford University Press, 2021.
- Midgley, David; Venaik, Sunil; Christopoulos, Demetris. A New Theory of Cultural Archetypes: Capturing Global Unity and Local Diversity. Palgrave Macmillan imprint published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2023.
- Molteni, Francesco. A Need for Religion: Insecurity and Religiosity in the Contemporary World. International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology Series, Vol. 135. United States: BRILL, 2020.
- Nogayeva, Ainur. Soft Power of Big Powers in Central Asia (Instruments, Processes and Limitations). – Ankara: Orion Press, 2020.
- Norris, Pippa. In Praise of Skepticism: Trust but Verify. Oxford University Press, 2022.
- Tuncer, Fatih Fuat. Türkiye-Albania Relations: Identity and Discourse. Cinius Yayınları, I. Baskı, İstanbul, Haziran 2020.
- Uslaner, Eric M. National Identity and Partisan Polarization. Oxford University Press, 2022.
- Van Beek, Ursula (ed.). Democracy Under Pressure: Resilience or Retreat. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
A jury consisting of three scholars was nominated by the WVS Association to review and evaluate the nominations: Professors Renata Siemienska (Poland); Russell Dalton (USA); and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (Germany) who served as the Chair of the Jury. The following four aspects were particularly considered during the evaluation: Is the book relevant to the field of political culture and values research? Does the book make a substantial and original contribution to theory? Does the book review and build on the relevant literature in the field and yet enriches it bya truly novel contribution? Does the book utilize large scale cross national survey data monitoring culture to test the comparative evidence? Each member of the Jury read all books and independently rated them on the four dimensions cited above using a ten-point scale (1-10). Results were exchanged only after all reviewers had independently finalized the evaluation. The decision was based on these results.
Two books dominate the evaluation results and the reviewers‘ rank order of the books. First in line is Pippa Norris‘ monograph "In Praise of Skepticism: Trust but Verify"; second is Ursula van Beek’s edited volume "Democracy under Pressure. Resilience or Retreat". In its final deliberation the Jury decided "In Praise of Skepticism" to be the winner of the competition and to award an "Honorable Mention" to "Democracy under Pressure".
"In Praise of Scepticism“ is relevant to the field of political culture. It makes a substantial and original contribution to political theory. It solidifies and qualifies the concept of political trust that builds a major bridge relating political behavior and political institutions. It improves the understanding of the term by differentiating between unqualified trust and critically considered judgement. Norris‘ empirical analysis mainly relies on survey data generated by the World Values Survey. The book is a monograph, carrying the intellectual weight of a single author.
"Democracy under Pressure“, the runner-up, has different credentials. It offers an encompassing account of the state of democracy in the past decades. The theoretical perspectives are discussed and chapters are presented analyzing both global and regional developments. The Jury is impressed by this volume because it avoids premature generalizations. The empirical results beg the question why some countries become more democratic while others do not. It asks for more carefully selected comparative case studies to evaluate the state of democratic development. The authors consider the broader historical, cultural, economic and social context and this turns out to be a significant step forward to understand the differences in the development of democratic regimes.
The World Values Survey Association expresses sincere gratitudes to the jury for all their hard work with the evaluation of the fifteen submissions. WVSA congratulate the winner and the runner-up!
The award ceremony will take place on June 17 at 12.00 EST/ 16.00 UTC. The winner of the 2023 Ronald F. Inglehart Best Book Award on Political Culture and Values, Pippa Norris, will give a lecture on "The Cultural Roots of Democratic Backsliding". Register to attend!
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