Giandomenico Majone Prize

Second Giandomenico Majone Prize

Launched the second Giandomenico Majone Prize for papers presented at the bienial conference of the Standing Group on Regulatory Governance.

First Giandomenico Majone Prize awarded

The Standing Group on Regulatory Governance of the European Consortium for Political Research awarded its first Giandomenico Majone Prize to Dr John Mikler (University of Sydney) during its second biennial Conference held at University Utrecht in June 5-7, 2008 for his paper entitled "Domestic Liberalisation as Global Regulation: the Cases of Fuel Economy and Online Gambling Regulations".

The Prize is in honour of Giandomenico Majone for his outstanding contribution for the study of regulatory governance in the European Union and well beyond it. This award recognises outstanding research by scholars in early stages of her or his career in the field of regulatory governance from all relevant disciplinary backgrounds. The Prize is limited to scholars having completed their PhD no more than seven years before the deadline for submission.

The Prize committee, composed of Prof. Claudio Radaelli (University of Exeter), Chair, Prof. Markus Haverland (Erasmus University) and Prof. Jarle Trondal (University of Oslo) decided to award the first prize to the paper presented by Dr. John Mikler considering that the paper "proposes a fresh and original approach to the theme of the conference, criticising some blunt statements made by political scientists on the advent of 'neoliberalism' and 'globalisation'. Blending different theoretical inspirations, Dr John Mikler provides evidence from two great case studies to support his arguments". The prize committee found that this paper makes the most ambitious 13 claims and is by far the most exciting among those submitted for the Majone prize in terms of blending theory and empirical evidence.

Dr. John Mikler is lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney since February 2006. Although an early career researcher, John has around 10 years experience in policy development and implementation through several positions with the Australian Commonwealth Public Service.

Claudio Radaelli, Giandomenico Majone and Prize Winner John Mikler.

His research interests are primarily focused on the role of transnational economic actors, particularly multinational corporations, and the interaction between them and states, international organisations and civil society. He is currently researching the global regulation of online gambling. He has presented his findings at national and international conferences, and has had his research published as a working paper, book chapter, and as journal articles in "Global Society", "Business and Politics", and "Policy and Society".

Paper abstract: Globalisation is sometimes taken as a synonym for market liberalisation, and it is said that power has flowed from states to markets. Whether happening as a result of undeniable 'forces' or some hegemonic consensus, there is agreement on the left and right of politics that this is a reality. This paper examines how market liberalisation actually produces two countervailing forces in respect of regulation. On the one hand, domestic deregulation enhances market power and the discretion of market actors. Yet on the other hand, states with effective market-friendly regulations are able to influence outcomes beyond their borders. The cases of fuel economy and online gambling regulations are used to illustrate these points. In the former case, Japanese and European industry-driven regulations are being 'exported' in the attributes of the products of their car industries, producing pressures for harmonisation in other markets. In the case of online gambling, UK marketfriendly regulations are likely to be 'exported' to the European region and beyond because of market liberalisation principles embodied in European Union institutions. While seemingly unrelated cases, what they thus have in common is that domestic liberalisation coupled with globalisation is creating opportunities for global regulation.