This year’s Johan Skytte Prize winner announced

Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University, is awarded the 2015 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. He receives it for having with “breath-taking learnedness, clarity and courage thrown new light over the growth of modern political order.”

The Johan Skytte Prize is awarded for the 21st year by the Johan Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University in a ceremony taking place in Uppsala on 3 October 2015.

Starting in early China centuries before Christ, Fukuyama’s The Origins of Political Order (2011) and Political Order and Political Decay (2014) elaborate on the various forms of political order and origins of decay in the great civilizations of China, India, the Middle East, and the Arab world. Europe and the United States is thus one of several civilizations, but one where the crucial components of order; a central state, rule of law and accountable government, have coincided.

"In a remarkable tour de force, Fukuyama in two volumes covers the human strive for political organization, an organization that can secure the survival of the ‘herd’ both physically and materially", says Li Bennich-Björkman, Johan Skytte professor in eloquence and political science and chair of the Prize Committee.

About the Johan Skytte Prize:
In 1622, Johan Skytte, then Vice-Chancellor of the University, established the Johan Skytte chair in Eloquence and Government, which is probably the world’s oldest active professorship in political science. The lands included in the original donation continue to finance research and the Johan Skytte Prize. The prize is awarded each year by The Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University to the person who has made the “most valuable contribution to political science”.

Read more about the prize on the Johan Skytte Prize Committee website.

For more information, please contact:
Li Bennich-Björkman, Johan Skytte professor in eloquence and political science, chair of the Prize Committee, tel: +46 708 289 519, e-mail: li.bennich-bjorkman@statsvet.uu.se