Post 1995
Graduates from the PhD programme in Political Science
In 1995 the department initiated an integrated PhD programme incorporating, along with the submission of a doctoral thesis, a taught coursework element including methodological training alongside substantive topics. A number of outstanding theses – including two prize-winning theses – have been completed by doctoral students graduating from this programme. Thus far, the doctoral programme has featured in only one comedy sketch.
For further information, or to communicate any amendments, please contact the department's Executive Officer at polsci@tcd.ie
At the moment, the list of graduates from TCD's Political Science doctoral programme is as follows:
2012
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Patrick Theiner |
The Politics of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. |
William Phelan |
| Dr Raimondas Ibenskas |
Explaining Party Splits and Mergers in Europe |
Gail McElroy and Kenneth Benoit |
| Dr Justin Leinaweaver |
Explaining the variation in state commitment to environmental treaties |
Robert Thomson |
| Dr Adriana Bunea |
Lobbying Brussels: Interest Groups' Demands and Networks in EU Environmental Policy. |
Robert Thomson and Gail McElroy |
| Dr Séin Ó Muineacháin |
Explaining the persistence of factionalism in parties |
Michael Gallagher |
| Dr Jennifer Brett |
The effectiveness of development aid: the role of political institutions |
Robert Thomson |
| Dr Thomas Daubler |
The creation of party election manifestos: how context affects content |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr James Cross |
Decision-making in the European Union: explaining outcomes through negotiation and deliberation |
Robert Thomson |
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2011
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Matthew Wall |
Politics as usual or exceptional elections? A comparative study of sub-Saharan Africa's multiparty systems |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr Maciej Gorecki |
Habitual voting: origins and consequences |
Michael Marsh |
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2010
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Zbyszek Zalinski |
Media agendas, public opinion and elections: evidence from Ireland and the United Kingdom |
Michael Marsh |
| Dr Maria Laura Sudulich |
Cyber-space oddity? An analysis of political parties’ websites and online campaigning |
Michael Gallagher |
| Dr Jane Suiter |
Chieftains delivering: political determinants of capital spending in Ireland 2001-07 |
Michael Marsh |
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2009
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Leonardo Baccini |
Explaining the new regionalism: the political economy of trade agreements |
Gail McElroy and Robert Thomson |
| Dr Ecaterina McDonagh |
'Democracy from the outside in': effectiveness of normative pressure and conditionality |
Ron Hill |
| Dr Ken McDonagh |
Exceptional wars: identity and intervention in the US war on terror |
Eddie Hyland |
| Dr Shane Mac Giollabhuí |
The secret life of political parties: a comparative study of candidate selection in African democracies |
Michael Gallagher |
| Dr Rory Costello |
Bicameral politics in the European Union |
Gail McElroy and Robert Thomson |
| Dr Shiera El-Malik |
Presupposing the subject, avoiding ideology: international relations, post-colonialism, and identity |
Nalini Persram |
| Dr Slava Mikhailov |
Measurement issues in the Comparative Manifesto Project data set and effectiveness of representative democracy |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr Jos Elkink |
An agent-based model of democratic diffusion |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr Nicola Grenham |
The politics of financial services regulation: reform and design in a footloose world |
Raj Chari |
| Dr Damien French |
Deliberative democracy, deliberative polls and citizens' juries |
Eddie Hyland |
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2008
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Nat O'Connor |
The democratization of information: freedom of information and democracy in Ireland |
Eddie Hyland |
| Dr Liam Weeks |
We don't like (to) party: explaining the significance of independents in Irish political life |
Michael Gallagher |
| Dr Vanessa Liston |
Microcosms of democracy? Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their impact on political attitudes and behaviour in Kenya |
Ken Benoit |
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2007
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Alex Baturo |
Presidential institutions and democracy: The political economy of succession and term limits |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr Brighid Brooks Kelly |
An exploration of the relationship between consociationalism and stability in plural societies throughout the world
**Prize-winning thesis - See Note 2 |
Michael Gallagher |
| Dr Garrett O'Boyle |
'How can they justify it to themselves?' Theories of justification and political violence |
Eddie Hyland |
| Dr Matt Kerby |
Comparative ministerial turnover in Canada, 1867-2000 |
Ken Benoit |
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2006
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2005
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Eric Shea |
European merger control policy: private interests, policy communities and entrepreneurship |
Raj Chari |
| Dr Patrick Bernhagen |
The political power of business: structure and information in public policymaking |
Eddie Hyland |
| Dr Fiachra Kennedy |
Stability and change in the choice available to voters: the set of potential leaders of government. An aggregate level study of eleven European countries, 1950-1999 |
Michael Laver and Michael Marsh |
| Dr Gemma Carney |
Intellectual and 'real world' feminism: mainstreaming international gender norms in the Republic of Ireland |
Nalini Persram |
| Dr Anna Gwiazda |
Europeanisation and Polish competition policy |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr Susanna Pearce |
The double-edged sword: the impact of religion on the intensity of political conflict |
Ken Benoit |
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2004
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Francesco Cavatorta |
The international dimension of democratisation: the case of Algeria |
Nalini Persram |
| Dr Lucy Mansergh |
Do parties make a difference? The relationship between government intention and government output in the public policy sphere: the case of governments in Ireland 1977-1997 |
Michael Laver |
| Dr Brendan Howe |
Comparative military interventions: the question of legitimacy |
Nalini Persram |
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2003
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Jane O'Mahony |
The European Union policy process: policy making in the Community pillar |
Patrick Keatinge and Brigid Laffan |
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2002
| PhD Awarded To |
Title of Doctoral Thesis |
Supervisor |
| Dr Heinz Brandenburg |
Agenda building: a time-series analysis of the changing issue priorities of parties and media during the 1997 general election campaign in the UK |
Michael Marsh |
| Dr Jacqueline Hayden |
Explaining the collapse of communism in Poland: how the strategic misperception of Round Table negotiators produced an unanticipated outcome |
Ken Benoit |
| Dr Mary-Clare O'Sullivan |
Messengers of the People? An analysis of representation and role orientations in the Irish parliament |
Michael Gallagher |
| Dr Karin Gilland Lutz |
The responsible party model and European integration in Ireland |
Ken Benoit and Michael Marsh |
- Note 1: Thesis by Dr Eoin O'Malley was winner of the inaugural Basil Chubb prize 2006 awarded by the Political Studies Association of Ireland for the best Politics PhD thesis submitted to an Irish university in 2005.
- Note 2: Thesis by Dr Brighid Brooks Kelly was winner of the Basil Chubb prize 2008 awarded by the Political Studies Association of Ireland for the best Politics PhD thesis submitted to an Irish university in 2007.
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