For the best doctoral dissertation completed and accepted during that year or the previous year in the field of American government.

Year	Author	Dissertation	Submitted by
1972	Paul M. Sniderman	Personality and Democratic Politics: Correlates of Self-Esteem	University of California, Berkeley
1973	Michael Jay Robinson	Public Affairs Television and the Growth of Political Malaise: The Case of the Selling of the Pentagon	University of Michigan
1974	Lawrence E. McCray	The Politics of Regulation: Multi-firm Trade Associations in Telecommunications Policy Making	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1975	Dall Worthington Forsythe	Taxation and Regime Change in America, 1781-1833: A Taxonomy of Political Events	Columbia University
1976	W. Lance Bennett	The Political Mind and the Political Environment	Yale University
1977	Kristi Andersen	How Realignments Happen: Mobilization and the Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-1936	University of Chicago
1978	Michael T. Hayes	An Economic Theory of Interest Groups and Public Policy	Indiana University
1979	Rodger Robert Huckfeldt	Political Behavior and the Social Context of Urban Neighborhoods	Washington University
1980		No award given
1981	Byron E. Shafer	The Party Reformed: Reform Politics in the Democratic Party, 1968-1972	University of California, Berkeley
1982	Paul Light	The President's Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Carter	University of Michigan
1983	Thomas W. Wolf	Congressional Sea Change: Conflict and Organizational Accommodation in the House of Representatives 1878-1921	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1984	Larry M. Bartels	Presidential Primaries and the Dynamics of Public Choice	University of California, Berkeley
1985	John Zaller	The Role of Elites in Shaping Public Opinion	University of California, Berkeley
1986	Mark Alex Peterson	Domestic Policy and Legislative Decision-Making: Congressional Responses to Presidential Initiatives	University of Michigan
1987	Lawrence Rothenberg	The Politics and Economics of Regulation and Deregulation: Motor Freight Policy at the Interstate Commerce Commission	Stanford University
1988	Mark C. Westlye	Dynamics of U.S. Senate Elections	University of California, Berkeley
1989	Victoria Hattam	Unions and Politics: The Courts and American Labor: 1806-1896	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1990	Laura Stoker	Morality and the Study of Political Behavior	University of Michigan
1991	Christopher Peter Gilbert	Religious Environments and Political Actors	Washington University
1992	George Douglas Dion	Removing the Obstructions: Minority Rights and the Politics of Procedural Change in the Nineteenth Century House of Representatives	University of Michigan
1993	David King	Committee Jurisdictions and Institutional Change in the U.S. House of Representatives	University of Michigan
1994	Scott C. James	Coalition-Building, the Democracy, and the Development of American Regulatory Institutions, 1884-1936: A Party System Perspective	University of California, Los Angeles
1995		No award given
1996	Sarah Binder	Minority Rights and Majority Rule: The Partisan Basis of Procedural Choice in Congress, 1789-1994	University of Minnesota
	Patricia Conley	Presidential Mandates: How Elections Shape the National Agenda	University of Chicago
1997	Gregory Wawro	Legislative Entrepreneurship in the U.S. House of Representatives	Cornell University
1998	Frances E. Lee	The Enduring Consequences of the Great Compromise: Senate Apportionment and Congressional Policymaking	Vanderbilt University
1999	Stephen P. Nicholson	Rethinking Voting Behavior: Agenda, Priming, and Spillover Effects in U.S. Elections	University of California, Davis
2000	Glen S. Krutz	Explaining Institutional Change: The Rise and Impact of Omnibus Legislation	Texas A&M University
2001	William Howell	Presidential Power and the Politics of Unilateral Action	Stanford University
2002	Deborah Gould	Sex, Death, and the Politics of Anger: Emotions and Reason in ACT UP's Fight Against AIDS	University of Chicago
2003	Tracy Sulkin	Rethinking Responsiveness: Campaign Themes, Legislative Agendas, and the Politics of Issue Uptake	University of Washington
2004	Jeremy David Bailey	Democratic Energy: Thomas Jefferson and the Development of Presidential Power	Boston College
	David Campbell	Participation in Context: How Communities and Schools Shape Civic Engagement	Harvard University
2005	Markus Prior	Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Greater Media Choice Changes Politics	Princeton University
2006	Robert W. Mickey	Paths Out of Dixie: The Decay of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972	Harvard University