The purpose of the David M. Olson Award is to honour a younger scholar engaged in parliamentary/legislative studies, the focus of David Olson’s research and teaching. The recipient will be rewarded with US$ 1,000 for the best self-authored paper presented in one of the RC08 panels at the 2021 IPSA World Congress. 

Eligible are doctoral students and PostDocs who completed their Ph.D. dissertation after 2013 (and not serving as a full professor). Authors of co-authored papers are only eligible if all authors satisfy this condition. The Award will then be split among the co-authors. The Award is funded by the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists / RC08 and will be given after the 2021 IPSA World Congress. Nominees must have uploaded their full papers on the IPSA website. 

David M. Olson is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Political Science, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he used to work as the head of the Center for Legislative Studies. He has published widely on parliamentary democracy, the internal structure of parliaments, and parliaments in transition societies. David Olson served as co-chair of the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists from 2000 to 2006.

Criteria

  • The paper must be of excellen quality.
  • The paper must cover a highly relevant topic for parliamentary research.
  • The paper should have an innovative approach.
  • The paper should have a strong methodological basis.


Guidelines for nomination

Nominations for the award can be made by one of the following ways:

  • by a board member of the IPSA Research Committee 08 (RC08);
  • by the convenor, chair, co-chair or discussant of any RC08 panel at the
  • virtual IPSA World Congress 2021;
  • jointly by two or more IPSA members of at least two different nationalities;
  • by an incumbent IPSA Executive Committee (EC) member;
  • by an IPSA Research Committee other than RC08 (in case of co-sponsored panels).


​​​​​​​Please send your nomination accompanied by the paper presented at the virtual IPSA World Congress 2021 to Zdenka Mansfeldová by 15 August 2021 (zdenka.mansfeldova@soc.cas.cz).
A jury will decide on the best IPSA World Congress paper on parliaments by a younger scholar. The jury will be composed of the current Chair of RC08 / Legislative Specialists and four additional board members.