The Committee of the Standing Group “Presidential Politics” congratulates the 2018 winner of the ‘Robert Elgie ‘ Best Paper Prize” Huang Ting-Yan for his paper “Prime Minister Autonomy and Intra-Executive Conflict under Semi-Presidentialism” presented at the ECPR General Conference in Hamburg. 

Yan’s paper examines the potential for intra-executive conflict in semi-presidential democracies. While most research on this topic concentrates on presidential power as a determinant of intra-executive conflict, the author develops an original argument where the locus of attention is on the prime minister and her level of autonomy vis a vis the president. The author provides a carefully thought-out measure of prime ministerial autonomy and shows that the relationship between prime ministerial autonomy and intra-executive conflict follows an inversed U-shaped curve. This argument is tested using a multi-method approach. For these reasons (original argument, careful attention to issues of conceptualization and measurement, mixed-method research), as well as his mastery of the literature on the topic, Huang-Ting Yan is awarded the best paper awarded by the ECPR Standing Group on Presidential Politics.

The prize consists of 250 Euros.

Congratulations to Huang Ting-Yan!