The Brian Farrell book prize

The executive committee of the PSAI has decided to name its annual book award, The Brian Farrell book prize, in honour of Prof. Farrell's long distinguished contribution to the study of politics in Ireland both as an academic and broadcaster.

The PSAI awards an annual prize for the best book published in political science by a member of the Political Studies Association of Ireland. The prize is awarded each year at the annual conference.

The competition is open to single-authored and jointly-authored books written by PSAI members and published in the previous year. Nominations for the book prize are sough each year in May. The closing date for this year's prize is Friday 28 May 2010.

Previous Winners
The 2009 prize was awarded to Romania and the European Union. From Marginalisation to Membership by Dimitris Papadimitriou and David Phinnemore (Routledge).

This book is an up-to-date study on the dynamics behind Romania's relationship with the European Union from the collapse of the Ceaucescu regime in 1989, to its recent accession to the EU in 2007. The book merits this years PSAI book prize, because it provides empirically rich and new insights into a seldom analysed topic: the pathway of an Eastern European state that grapples with all sorts of economic and political problems and reforms towards EU membership. The authors do a very good job in identifying the instruments and strategies of the European Union to promote reform in Romania. Also, in analytically examining the reactions on the ground the authors convincingly illustrate the scope conditions for the EU's enlargement toolbox to work effectively. The analysis sheds new light on the possibility and the limits of EU influence and the makes a significant contribution to wider debates about the dynamics underpinning Europeanization, in general, and the EU enlargement, in particular, and is of interest to a wide audience.

The 2008 prize was awarded to The Irish Voter: The Nature of Electoral Competition in the Republic of Ireland by Michael Marsh, Richard Sinnott, John Garry and Fiachra Kennedy (Manchester University Press).

Prize Rules

• All nominees must be members of the Political Studies Association of Ireland
  
  
• Please provide evidence of the publication date, which must be between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2009
  
  
• Nominations must be made on the form here (please place link to form overleaf here) and accompanied by 1 copy of each of your nominated books, and submitted by the extended deadline of Friday 28 May 2010 to:
  
  PSAI Book Prize Committee
  c/o Dr. Theresa Reidy
  Department of Government
  University College Cork
  Western Road
  Cork