Congratulations to Álvaro Canalejo Molero, Ana Ruipérez Núñez, and Théo Blanc from the EUI Department of Political and Social Sciences for receiving their doctorates in June 2023, after unanimous decisions from the Jury.
Álvaro Canalejo Molero defended his thesis entitled New Party Entry and Political Engagement Electoral Turnout and Satisfaction with Democracy on 15 June 2023, Ana Ruipérez Núñez defended her thesis The Politics of Commemoration and Decommemoration on 12 June 2023, while Théo Blanc defended his thesis Salafism in Tunisia: Trajectories of Political (Dis)Engagement (1970-2021) on 27 June 2023.
Álvaro Canalejo Molero's thesis asks whether the entry of new parties fosters political engagement, understood as increasing electoral participation and improved satisfaction with democracy. It shows that new party entry, indeed, promotes electoral participation. The effect is small, but significant. The effect of new party entry on satisfaction with democracy (SWD), however, depends on the underlying level of affective polarisation and the party's degree of success. The overall effect on satisfaction is positive, but the effect of obtaining parliamentary representation is only minimally positive overall, and actually negative for voters of radical parties. The thesis interprets this important, unexpected finding in terms of the increased salience of the electoral outcome for the voters of the new parties, most notably the increased salience of the victory of political opponents, which creates anger and frustration among the voters most opposed to the mainstream establishment.
Read Álvaro Canalejo Molero's thesis in Cadmus.
Ana Ruipérez Núñez' defence highlighted the importance and the timely character of her thesis. Sparking an interesting discussion about the roots and consequences of public commemoration, Núñez and the members of the Jury elaborated on how political power can translate into the public landscape as well as the far-reaching consequences of this mapping for the citizenry. Combining historical information with cutting-edge experimental designs, Núñez' thesis comprises of three empirical papers of high quality, that nicely connect with one another and create a new framework in the study of public commemoration.
Read Ana Ruipérez Núñez' thesis in Cadmus.
Théo Blanc has in fact written two theses in one. He proposes first a new approach on the conceptual classification of the different contemporary Islamist movements. In the second part, he presents a remarkable study of the different salafi movements in Tunisia of the last fifty years. Extensive field work plus conceptualisation: the receipt of the good thesis.
Read Théo Blanc’s thesis in Cadmus.