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The Gabriel A. Almond Award is for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of comparative politics. Award Committee: Kanchan Chandra, Chair, New York University; Forrest D. Colburn, CUNY – Graduate Center; and Ellen M. Immergut, Humboldt University Berlin Recipient: Lisa A. Blaydes, Stanford University Dissertation Title: “Competition Without Democracy: Elections and Dissertation Chairs: George Tsebelis, University of Michigan, and Leonard Binder, University of California-Los Angeles Citation: This excellent dissertation analyzes the role of elections in contemporary Egypt. By probing the role of electoral competition in a non-democratic regime, it makes a distinguished contribution to the analysis of the internal dynamics of authoritarian regimes. Blaydes argues that elections should not be viewed as a threat to this authoritarian regime but instead as a source of its resilience. Elections provide a means of resolving distributional conflicts—particularly those regarding the spoils system—amongst and between the ruling regime and the “rent-seeking elite,” as well as providing some means of (albeit limited) informational exchange and claims-making on the state for the broader citizenry. The combination of sources (Arabic newspapers and interviews, political science and area specific sources) and methods (interviews, quantitative methods, some formal models) is truly impressive. Moreover, the thesis considers a wide range of dimensions and actors in the analysis, addressing the benefits to authoritarian regimes in holding elections (Chapter 2), how the regime manages distributive expectations via elections (Chapter 3), how infrastructure is provided (Chapter 4), Budget cycles (Chapter 5), Voting (Chapter 6), Elites (Chapter 7), and the role of dissident groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood (Chapter 8) and Liberal intellectuals (Chapter 9), as well as External Actors (Chapter 10). This is the most detailed and thorough study of the functional benefits of elections in a single country that we am aware of, and that too in a country that has been difficult to incorporate into comparative politics until now. This dissertation represents a milestone in the study of both authoritarianism and Egyptian politics. |
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