2022 Recipient
Eoin Lazaridis Power
The Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize, established in 1990 and named in honor of Professor Holmgren in 2021, is awarded for an outstanding essay by a graduate student in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
Co-Winner: Eoin Lazaridis Power, University of Texas at Austin
Title: “A Balkan Neofunctional Success Story or, the Curious Case of the CBBH”
This essay explores the role of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eoin Lazaridis Power explains that although many public institutions in this country emerged from former Yugoslavia and are often characterized by ethnic mistrust, the Central Bank is still relatively well respected and trusted. Power has done interesting research on the ground, using an institutional ethnographic approach (including interviews). In the end, Power offers a neo-functionalist explanation. The essay contains valuable policy ideas on how the institutional design might look in difficult political environments in which different ethnic, economic, and fiscal interests must be balanced and is an excellent example of policy-oriented research that pays attention to economic and fiscal problems and institutional design in historically complex circumstances. “A Balkan Neofunctional Success Story or, the Curious Case of the CBBH” is animated by intellectual curiosity and invites the reader to think and solve the puzzle the author has captivatingly presented.