Professor Anthony Heath FBA CBE awarded inaugural David Butler Prize

Professor Anthony Heath FBA CBE awarded inaugural David Butler Prize

EPOP is delighted to announce that Professor Anthony Heath FBA CBE has been awarded the inaugural David Butler Prize for Lifetime Contribution to the Study of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties at our 2023 annual conference in Southampton. This prize was established in honour of Sir David Butler - one of the founding fathers of the quantitative study of elections in Britain - to celebrate a notable scholar either retired or close to retirement, who has made a distinctive and indelible mark on our discipline, and who is/was a member or significant supporter of EPOP and is/was predominantly based in the UK.

Anthony Heath has made one of the most substantial lifetime contributions to the study of elections, public opinion, and parties. He is credited as an author of 493 publications on Google Scholar, with a total of over 32,500 citations and an h-index of 82. Among his most significant contributions were as Director of the British Election Studies (BES) from 1983-1997, being a key contributor to the inception and development of the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey series, and leading the Ethnic Minority British Election Studies (EMBES) of 1997 and 2010. His early work on public opinion with the BSA survey series included the development of the socialist-laissez faire (economic left-right) and libertarian-authoritarian values scales that are still widely used in recent research. As the founding Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford (1999-2008) he established an institution that continues to provide education and training in electoral behaviour and public opinion at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels.

The judging panel were unanimous in their decision, providing the following statement for their decision:

“Anthony Heath has inspired many generations of political scientists, not only for the quality of his own work, but also through his keen interest in the work of others and readiness to support and assist in their research. The judging panel was particularly impressed by the breadth of his contribution, particularly his role in establishing key infrastructure for studying electoral behaviour and social attitudes in the UK and beyond, and the quality of his scholarship. A model of what a professional social scientist should be, he was the unanimous choice of the panel.”