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Democracy and Autocracy (formerly “Comparative Democratization”) Section Award Recipients
 

Best Article Award

Single-authored or co-authored articles focusing directly on the subject of democratization and published in the previous year are eligible. 

2023 Ji Yeon Hong, University of Michigan
“In Strongman We Trust: The Political Legacy of the New Village Movement in South Korea.” American Journal of Political Science 2022.
2023 Sunkyoung Park, Incheon National University
“In Strongman We Trust: The Political Legacy of the New Village Movement in South Korea.” American Journal of Political Science 2022.
2023 Hyunjoo Yang, Sogang University
“In Strongman We Trust: The Political Legacy of the New Village Movement in South Korea.” American Journal of Political Science 2022.
2022 Agustina S. Paglayan, University of California, San Diego
“The Non-Democratic Roots of Mass Education: Evidence from 200 Years,” American Political Science Review 115:1 (2021)
2021 Vilde Lunnan Djuve, University of Oslo
"Patterns of Regime Breakdown Since the French Revolution," Comparative Political Studies, 2020.
2021 Carl Henrik Knutsen, University of Oslo
"Patterns of Regime Breakdown Since the French Revolution," Comparative Political Studies, 2020.
2021 Tore Wig, University of Oslo
"Patterns of Regime Breakdown Since the French Revolution," Comparative Political Studies, 2020.
2021

Matthew Graham, George Washington University
"Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States." American Political Science Review, 2020.

2021 Milan Svolik, Yale University
"Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States." American Political Science Review, 2020.
2021 Honorable Mention
Sharan Grewal, College of William and Mary
"From Islamists to Muslim Democrats: The Case of Tunisia’s Ennahda." American Political Science Review, 2020.
2021 Honorable Mention

Robin Harding, University of Oxford
"Who Is Democracy Good For? Elections, Rural Bias, and Health and Education Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa." Journal of Politics, 2020.

2020

Francisco Garfias, University of California, San Diego
"Elite Coalitions, Limited Government, and Fiscal Capacity Development: Evidence from Bourbon Mexico." Journal of Politics 81(1): 94-111.

2020 Honorable Mention
Guillermo Trejo, University of Notre Dame
"High-Profile Criminal Violence: Why Drug Cartels Murder Government Officials and Party Candidates in Mexico." British Journal of Political Science 1-27.
2020

Honorable Mention
Sandra Ley, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
"High-Profile Criminal Violence: Why Drug Cartels Murder Government Officials and Party Candidates in Mexico." British Journal of Political Science 1-27.

2019

Fiona Shen-Bayh, University of California, Berkeley
"Strategies of Repression." World Politics 70(3): 321-357.

2019

Aditya Dasgupta, University of California, Merced
"Technological Change and Political Turnover." American Political Science Review, 112(4): 918-938.

2018 Michael Albertus, University of Chicago
“Landowners & Democracy: The Social Origins of Democracy Reconsidered.” World Politics 69(2): 233–276.
2018 Honorable Mention
Bryn Rosenfeld, University of Southern California
“Reevaluating the Middle-Class Protest Paradigm: A Case-Control Study of Democratic Protest Coalitions in Russia.” American Poltical Science Review 111(4): 637–652.
2017 Kurt Weyland, University of Texas at Austin
“Crafting Counterrevolution: How Reactionaries Learned to Combat Change in 1848.” American Political Science Review 110(2): 215–31.
2017 Honorable Mention
Ashlea Rundlett, University of Illinois and Milan Svolik, Yale University
“Deliver the Vote! Micromotives and Macrobehavior in Electoral Fraud.” American Political Science Review 110(1): 180–97.
2016  Daniel Treisman, University of California, Los Angeles
Income, Democracy, and Leader Turnover.” American Journal of Political Science Volume 59, Issue 4, pages 927–942, October 2015
2015  Jordan Gans-Morse, Northwestern University
“Varieties of Clientelism: Machine Politics During Elections” American Journal of Political Science 58, 2 (2014): 415-432 
2015  Sebastian Mazzuca, Universidad Nacional de San Martín and CIAS
“Varieties of Clientelism: Machine Politics During Elections” American Journal of Political Science 58, 2 (2014): 415-432 
2015  Simeon Nichter, University of California, San Diego
“Varieties of Clientelism: Machine Politics During Elections” American Journal of Political Science 58, 2 (2014): 415-432 
2014 Lisa Blaydes, Stanford University
"The Feudal Revolution and Europe’s Rise: Political Divergence of the Christian West and the Muslim World before 1500 CE." American Political Science Review, February 2013
2014 Eric Chaney, Harvard University
"The Feudal Revolution and Europe’s Rise: Political Divergence of the Christian West and the Muslim World before 1500 CE." American Political Science Review, February 2013
2013 Robert Woodberry, National University of Singapore
The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy (American Political Science Review 106, 2)
2012 Carles Boix, Princeton University
Democracy, Development and the International System (November 2011 American Political Science Review)
2012 Honorable Mention
Susan Hyde, Yale University
Catch Us If You Can: Election Monitoring and International Norm Diffusion (April 2011 American Journal of Political Science)
2011 Ben Ansell, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Inequality and Democratization: A Contractarian Approach
2011 David Samuels, University of Minnesota
Inequality and Democratization: A Contractarian Approach
2010 Dan Slater, University of Chicago
Revolutions, Crackdowns, and Quiescence: Communal Elites and Democratic Mobilization in Southeast Asia
2010 Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University
Shaping Democratic Practice and the Causes of Electoral Fraud: The Case of Nineteenth-Century Germany
2009 Dan Slater, University of Chicago
"Can Leviathan Be Democratic?:Competitive Electins, Robust Mass Politics, and State Infrastructural Power," Studies in Comparative International Development (December 2008)
2009 Honorable Mention
Ellis Goldberg, University of Washington, Seattle
"Lessons from Strange Cases: Democracy, Development, and the Resource Curse in the U.S. States", Comparative Political Studies (2008)
2009 Honorable Mention
Erik Wibbels, Duke University
"Lessons from Strange Cases: Democracy, Development, and the Resource Curse in the U.S. States", Comparative Political Studies (2008)
2009 Honorable Mention
Eric Mvukiyehe, Columbia University
"Lessons from Strange Cases: Democracy, Development, and the Resource Curse in the U.S. States", Comparative Political Studies (2008)
2007 Richard Snyder, Brown University
Does Lootable Wealth Breed Disorder?
2007 Honorable Mention
Michael Coppedge, University of Notre Dame
2007 Honorable Mention
Daniel Brinks, University of Texas, Austin
2006 Lucan Way, University of Toronto
"Authoritarian Statebuilding and the Sources of Regime Competitiveness in the Fourth Wave World Politics," World Politics 57, 2 (January 2005): 231-61
2006 Philip Roessler, University of Maryland
"Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes"
2005 Lisa Baldez, Dartmouth College
"Elected Bodies: The Gender Quota Law for Legislative Candidates in Mexico," Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 2. (May 2004), pp. 231-258
2004 Quan Li, Pennsylvania State University
Co-Authored with Rafael Reuveny, Indiana University, "Economic Globalization and Democracy: An Empirical Analysis" (British Journal of Political Science, January, 2003)
2004 Rafael Reuveny, Indiana University
Co-Authored with Quan Li, Pennsylvania State University, "Economic Globalization and Democracy: An Empirical Analysis" (British Journal of Political Science, January, 2003)
2003 Anirudh Krishna, Duke University
Mandates and Democracies: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
2003   James Mahoney, Brown University
Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001)

 


Best Book Award

Given for the best book in the field of Comparative Democratization.

2023 Steven Levitsky, Harvard University
Revolutions and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism. Princeton University Press.
2023 Lucan Way, University of Toronto
Revolutions and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism. Princeton University Press.
2023 Fiona Feiang Shen-Bayh, University of Maryland
Undue Process: Persecution and Punishment in Autocratic Courts. Cambridge University Press.
2022 Bryn Rosenfeld, Cornell University
The Autocratic Middle Class: How State Dependency Reduces the Demand for Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2021.
2021 Guillermo Trejo, University of Notre Dame
Votes, Drugs, and Violence.
2021 Sandra Ley, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico
Votes, Drugs, and Violence.
2021 Daniel Mattingly, Yale University
The Art of Political Control.
2020 Sheri Berman
Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancient Régime to the Present Day. Oxford UP, 2019
2019

Deborah Yashar, Princeton University
Homicidal Ecologies: Illicit Economies and Complicit States in Latin America, Cambridge University Press, 2018.

2018 Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University
“Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy.” Cambridge University Press, 2017.
2017 Sheena Chestnut Greitens, University of Missouri
Dictators and Their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
2017 Robert Kaufman, Rutgers University
Dictators and Democrats: Masses, Elites, and Regime Change. Princeton University Press, 2016.
2017 Steph Haggard, University of California, San Diego
Dictators and Democrats: Masses, Elites, and Regime Change. Princeton University Press, 2016.
2016     Kenneth Roberts, Cornell University
Changing Course in Latin America: Party Systems in the Neoliberal Era. Cambridge University Press, 2015
2015  Kurt Weyland, University of Texas at Austin
Making Waves: Democratic Contention in Europe and Latin America since 1848. Cambridge University Press, 2014 
2015  Honorable Mention
Rachel Beatty Ridel, Northwestern University
Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa. Cambridge University Press, 2014 
2015  Honorable Mention
Ben Ansell, Oxford University
Inequality and Democratization an Elite-Competition Approach. Cambridge University Press, 2014 
2015  Honorable Mention
David Samuels, University of Minnesota
Inequality and Democratization an Elite-Competition Approach. Cambridge University Press, 2014 
2013 Milan Svolik, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Politics of Authoritarian Rule (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
2013 Honorable Mention
Michael Coppedge, University of Notre Dame
Democratization and Research Methods (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
2012 Susan Hyde, Yale University
The Pseudo-Democrat's Dilemma: Why Election Monitoring Became an International Norm (Cornell University Press, 2011)
2012 Honorable Mention
Vineeta Yadav, Pennsylvania State University
Political Parties, Business Groups, and Corruption in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press, 2011)
2011 Timothy Frye, Columbia University
Building States and Markets after Communism: The Perils of Polarized Democracy
2011 Monika Nalepa, Princeton University
Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Systems
2010 Zachary Elkins, University of Texas, Austin
The Endurance of National Constitutions
2010 Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago
The Endurance of National Constitutions
2010 James Melton, IMT Institute for Advanced Studies
The Endurance of National Constitutions
2009 Thad Dunning, Yale University
Crude Democracy: Natural Resource Wealth and Political Regimes (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
2008  Kenneth F. Greene, University of Texas-Austin
 Why Dominant Parties Lose: Mexico's Democratization in Comparative Perspective
2008  Amaney Jamal, Princeton University
Barriers to Democracy 
2007 Jillian Schwedler, University of Maryland
Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen
2006 M. Fish, University of California, Berkeley
Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
2005 Kurt Schock, Rutgers University, Newark
Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies (University of Minnesota Press)
2005 Charles Tilly, Columbia University
Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000 (Cambridge University Press)
2004 Nancy Bermeo, Princeton University
Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times (Princeton University Press, 2003)

 


Best Field Work Award

This prize rewards dissertation students who conduct especially innovative and difficult fieldwork. Candidates must submit two chapters of their dissertation and a letter of nomination from the chair of their dissertation committee describing the field work. 

2023 Emilia Simison, Tulane University
Resetting public policy? Democracies, Dictatorships, and Policy Change.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2022.
2022 Kaustav Chakrabarti, Ashoka University
“Underground Governance: Rules-Based Order by Armed Groups in Northeast India,” (PhD thesis), Brown University, 2021.
2021 Mashail Malik, Harvard University
“The Microfoundations of Identity Politics in Pakistan’s Megacity.”
2021 Honorable Mention
Michelle Weitzel, University of Basel
“Drones, Sirens, and Prayer Calls: Unheard Consequences of a Politics of Sound.”
2020 Dr. Sana Jaffrey, University of Chicago
2020

Dr. Chris Carter, University of California, Berkeley

2019 Rachael S. McLellan, Princeton University
2019 Hinfd Ahmed Zaki, University of Washington
2018 Egor Lazarev, Columbia University
“Laws in Conflict: Legacies of War and Legal Pluralism in Chechnya.” Columbia University.
2018 Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Nugent, Harvard University
“The Political Psychology of Repression and Polarization in Authoritarian Regimes.” Princeton University.
2018 Honorable Mention
Şule Yaylaci, Yale University
“Trust in Civil Wars: The Implications of Conflict Character and Threat on Political and Social Trust.” University of British Columbia.
2017 Nicholas Barnes, University of Wisconsin, Madison
“Monopolies of Violence: Gang Governance in Rio de Janeiro.”
2016  Pia Raffler, Yale University
“Bureaucrats versus Politicians: A Field Experiment on Political Oversight and Local Public Service Provision" 
2016  Kathleen Klaus, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Claiming Land: Institutions, Narratives, and Political Violence in Kenya”
2015  Barry Driscoll, University of Wisconsin - Madison
"The Perverse Effects of Political Competition: Building Capacity for Patronage in Ghana”   
2015  Colm Fox, Singapore Management University
“Appealing to the Masses Understanding Ethnic Politics And Elections in Indonesia” 
2015  Honorable Mention
Michael Broache, Columbia University
"The International Criminal Court and Atrocities in DRC: A Case Study of the RCD-Goma (Nkunda Faction)/CNDP/M23 Rebel Group” 
2014 Milli Lake, University of Washington
2014 Honorable Mention
Calvert Jones, Yale University
2013 Adam Auerbach, University of Wisconsin, Madison
"Cooperation in Uncertainty: Migration, Ethnicity, and Community Governance in India’s Urban Slums."
2013 Honorable Mention
Sarah Parkinson, University of Chicago
"Reinventing the Resistance: Order and Violence Among Palestinians in Lebanon."
2012 Simon Chauchard, Dartmouth College
From Political Power To Changing Group Relations? Tracking the Psychological Impact of Political Inclusion in Rural India (Completed at New York University; advised by Kanchan Chandra)
2012 Honorable Mention
James Long, University of California, San Diego
Ethnic Voting in Kenya and Ghana and Election Fraud in Uganda and Afghanistan
2011 Claire Adida, University of California San Diego
Immigrant Exclusion and Insecurity in Africa
2010 Alejandra Armesto, University of Notre Dame
"Territorial Control and Particularistic Spending on Local Public Goods," University of Notre Dame
2009 Alexandra Scacco, Columbia University
"Who Riots?Explaining Individual Participation in Ethnic Violence in Nigeria"
2007 Marc Berenson, Princeton University
Dissertation Title: "Re-Creating the State: Governance and Power in Poland and Russia"
2006 Manal Jamal, McGill University
"After the Peace Processes: Foreign Donor Assistance and the Political Economy of Marginalization in Palestine and El Salvador"
2006 Anupma Kulkarni, Stanford University
"Demons and Demos: Violence, Memory, and Citizenship in Post-Conflict States"
2005   Lily Tsai, Harvard University
"The Informal State: Governance, Accountability, and Public Goods Provision in Rural China," PhD dissertation at Harvard University

 


Best Paper Award

Given to the best paper on Comparative Democratization presented at the previous year’s APSA Convention. Papers must be nominated by panel chairs or discussants.

2023

Sharan Grewal, College of William & Mary
Military Repression and Restraint in Algeria.” 2022 APSA Annual Meeting.

2022 Roya Talibova, University of Michigan
“Repression, Military Service, and Insurrection," APSA conference, 2021
2021 Nikhar Gaikwad, Columbia University
"Genocide and the Gender Gap in Political Representation."
2021 Erin Lin, Ohio State University
"Genocide and the Gender Gap in Political Representation."
2021 Noah Zucker, Columbia University
"Genocide and the Gender Gap in Political Representation."
2020 Matthew Graham, Yale University
“Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States.”
2020 Milan Svolik, Yale University
“Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States.”
2019

Mariano Sánchez-Talanquer, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)
“Suffrage Restrictions and the Reach of the Nation-State.”

2018 Elizabeth Nugent, Harvard University
“The Psychology of Repression and Polarization in Authoritarian Regimes.”
2018 Honorable Mention
Dan Treisman, University of California, Los Angeles
“Democracy by Mistake.”
2017 Cristina Corduneanu-Huci, Central European University
“Patronage, Trust and State Capacity: The Historical Trajectories of Clientelism.”
2017 Lenka Bustikova, Arizona State University
“Patronage, Trust and State Capacity: The Historical Trajectories of Clientelism.”
2016    Anne Meng, University of California, Berkeley
“Ruling Parties in Authoritarian Regimes: A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change” 
2015  Kenneth Greene, University of Texas at Austin
"Ousting Autocrats: The Political Economy of Hybrid Autocracy”  
2014 Christian Houle, Michigan State University
"Ethnic Inequality and the Dismantling of Democracy: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa."
2013 Kunle Owolabi, Villanova University
"Literacy and Democracy after Slavery? The Long-Term Consequences of Forced Settlement and Colonial Occupation in the Developing World"
2012 Susan Stokes, Yale University
What Killed Vote Buying in Britain?
2011 Robert Woodberry, University of Texas Austin
Weber Through the Back Door: Protestant Competition, Elite Power Dispersion, and the Global Spread of Democracy
2010 Giovanni Capoccia, Oxford University
"The Historic Turn in Democratization Studies: A New Research Program and Evidence from Europe"
2010 Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University
"The Historic Turn in Democratization Studies: A New Research Program and Evidence from Europe"
2009 Judith Kelley, Duke University
"D-Minus Elections: How Conflicting Norms and Interests Influence Whether International Election Observers Endorse Elections"
 

 


Juan Linz Best Dissertation Award

Given for the best dissertation in the Comparative Study of Democracy completed and accepted in the two calendar years immediately prior to the APSA Annual Meeting where the award will be presented.

2023 Tanushree Goyal, Princeton University
“Representation from Below: How Women Mobilize Inside Parties”
2022 Sasha de Vogel, New York University
"Protest, Mobilization, Concessions, and Policy Change in Autocracies," University of Michigan, 2021
2021 Christopher Carter, University of California, Berkeley
“States of Extraction: The Emergence and Effects of Indigenous Autonomy in the Americas.”
2021 Honorable Mention
Jane Esberg, Princeton University
“Strategies of Repression in Pinochet’s Chile.” 
2020

Donghyun Danny Choi, University of Pittsburgh
"Severed Connections: Political Parties and Democratic Responsiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa."

2019

Nikhar Gaikwad, Yale University
“Identity Politics and Economic Policy.”

2018 Soledad Prillaman, University of Oxford
“Why Women Mobilize: Dissecting and Dismantling India’s Gender Gap in Political Participation.” Harvard University, 2017.
2018 Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Nugent, Harvard University
“The Political Psychology of Repression and Polarization in Authoritarian Regimes.” Princeton University, 2017.
2017 Rosella Capella Zielinski, Boston University
How Nations Pay for War. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
2017 Honorable Mention
Debra Thompson, Northwestern University
The Schematic State: Race, Transnationalism, and the Politics of the Census. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
2016  Bryn Rosenfeld, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
“Varieties of Middle Class Growth and Democratic Preference Formation”
2015 Henry Thomson, University of Oxford
"Food and Power: Authoritarian Regime Durability and Agricultural Policy.”  
2014 Paula Munoz, University of Texas at Austin
Campaign Clientelism in Peru: An Informal Theory.

2014

Leonid Peisakhin, Yale University
Long Shadow of the Past: Identity, Norms, and Political Behavior.

2013

Gwyneth McClendon, Yale University
"The Politics of Envy and Esteem in Two Democracies"
2012 Noam Lupu, Princeton University
Party Brands in Crisis: Partisanship, Brand Dilution and the Breakdown of Political Parties in Latin America (Completed at Princeton University; advised by Deborah J. Yashar)
2011 Ekrem Karakoc, Pennsylvania State University
A Theory of Redistribution in New Democracies: How Democracy Has Increased Income Disparity in Southern and Postcommunist Europe
2010 Agustina Giraudy, UNC Chapel Hill
"Subnational Undemocratic Regime Continuity After Democratization: Argentina and Mexico in Comparative Perspective"
2010 Evangelos Liaras, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Ballot Box and Tinderbox: Can Electoral Engineering Save Multiethnic Democracy?"
2009 Lisa Blaydes, University of California, Los Angeles
"Competition without Democracy: Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak's Egypt"
2009 Honorable Mention
Rachel Riedl, Princeton University
"Institutions in New Democracies: Variations in African Political Party Systems"
2007 Susan Hyde, University of California, San Diego
Observing Norms: Explaining the Causes and Consequences of Internationally Monitored Elections
2006 Mieczyslaw Boduszynski, University of California, Berkeley
"Explaining Post-Communist Diversity: Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States, 1990-2004"
2005 Staffan Lindberg, Lund University
"The Power of Elections: Democratic Participation, Competition, and Legitimacy in Africa"