Sakıp Sabancı Jury Prize goes to NYU professor Przeworski

New York University professor Adam Przeworski has been awarded the special Jury Prize for the prestigious Sakıp Sabancı International Research Awards for his work on democratic regimes and markets.

In honor of the late Sakıp Sabancı, the honorary chairman of the board of trustees of Sabancı University, the awards were presented at a ceremony on April 10.

He was commemorated with the prestigious awards on the 14th year of his passing.

The theme for this year’s awards was “Challenges to democratic governance and living together in Turkey and the world.”

In addition to the Jury Prize, Essay Awards were given to researchers under 45 years of age, selected among the submitted essays. The three equally-weighted Essay Awards were given to Selim Erdem Aytaç, İpek Çınar, and Berk Esen.

“We share transnational problems, which require international efforts to solve,” said Przeworski, speaking at the award ceremony. The professor is a veteran of political science who has been working on democracies for over 50 years. He also noted the prize was especially relevant to young scientists for continuing their global efforts.

“Democracy is under threat in all countries. For the first time in two hundred years, many parents believe their children will be worse off than they are. In the longer term, economic consequences will influence the decision of political actors and groups to remain within the boundaries of democracy,” he added.

Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees chair Güler Sabancı also took the floor during the ceremony on April 10. “We need to prioritize knowledge generation, research, scientific thinking and discussion to enable Turkey to become effective, capable and consistent in finding solutions to regional and global problems,” she said.

Güler Sabancı also noted the theme for the 2019 awards would be “The future of multipartisanism in global disorder: Rethinking security, economy, and democracy.”