On behalf of the editorial board, the editors of Government and Opposition are pleased to announce the winners of the annual ‘best article’ prize, named in memory of long-time editorial board member Elizabeth Meehan (1947– 2018). This prize is offered to the non-commissioned, peer-reviewed, original research article published during the previous calendar year that the editorial board members believe best represents the scholarly excellence of the journal and the tradition of commitment to public discourse on important topics in comparative politics that Government and Opposition has maintained for more than fifty years.

The prize winning article for Volume 54 (2019) is by Professor Ziya Öniş, Koç University in Istanbul & Dr Mustafa Kutlay, City University of London: Global Shifts and the Limits of the EU’s Transformative Power in the European Periphery: Comparative Perspectives from Hungary and Turkey.

The paper highlights the weakening of the EU’s transformative capacity in the broader European periphery in a rapidly shifting global order with reference to Hungary and Turkey. Although Hungary is an “insider” and Turkey a relative “outsider,” their recent experiences display strikingly similar patterns, raising important concerns about the EU’s leverage. Under the influence of strong nationalist-populist leaders backed by powerful majorities, both countries have been moving in an increasingly illiberal direction, away from well-established EU norms. The paper proposes an analytical framework based on a combination of push and pull factors that drives from changing global political economy dynamics, which explains the EU’s declining appeal in its periphery, not only in reference to the internal dynamics of European integration and its multiple crises, but also the appeal of illiberal versions of strategic capitalism employed by rising powers, which serve as reference point for the elites of several states in diverse geographical settings.

Öniş, Z., & Kutlay, M. (2019). Global Shifts and the Limits of the EU’s Transformative Power in the European Periphery: Comparative Perspectives from Hungary and Turkey. Government and Opposition, 54(2), 226-253 (April 2019).

We are very pleased to have selected this article. It showcases the importance of rigorous, well-embedded, comparative research to any discussion of the limits to the role of the EU as an impetus for economic and political reform. This issue was of central importance to Professor Meehan’s work. We especially welcomed the comparison between an EU member state and a candidate for membership, exploring both the insider and the outsider dimensions of the EU’s transformative power.