Section 35 - American Political Science Association (APSA)

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

More on the Democracy and Autocracy section (formerly “Comparative Democratization”)

Best Article Award
Best Book Award
Best Field Work Award
Best Paper Award
Juan Linz Best Dissertation Award

Best Article Award

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

2025	Edward Goldring, University of Melbourne and Peter Ward, Sejong Institute “Elite Management Before Autocratic Leader Succession: Evidence from North Korea.” World Politics 76(3): 417-456. 2024.
2024	Adam Scharpf, University of Copenhagen Christian Glaläßel, Hertie School Pearce Edwards, Carnegie Mellon University “International Sports Events and Repression in Autocracies: Evidence from the 1978 FIFA World Cup.” American Political Science Review 117(3), 909–926 (2023).
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.

2025	Vicente Valentim, IE University The Normalization of the Radical Right: A Norms Theory of Political Supply and Demand.Oxford University Press, 2024.
2024	Faisal Ahmed, Wellesley College Conquests and Rents: A Political Economy of Dictatorship and Violence in Muslim Societies. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
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 Fieldwork 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 fieldwork.

2025	Elizabeth K. Parker-Magyar, Harvard University “Workplace Networks and Autonomous Organizations in Contemporary Jordan.”
2024	Feyaad Allie, Harvard University “Power, Exclusion, and Identity: The Politics of Muslim Marginalization in India.”
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.

2025	Eddy Yeung, Emory University “Dynamic Democratic Backsliding.”
2025	Honorable Mention Noam Lupu, Vanderbilt University Eli Rau, Tecnológico de Monterrey Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, Vanderbilt University “Public Tolerance for Anti-Democratic Behavior.”
2024	Shikhar Singh, University of Pennsylvania “In-Group Anger or Out-Group Ambivalence? How Voters Perceive Rule-Based Direct Transfers in India.”
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.

2025	Andres Uribe, University of Wisconsin-Madison “Coercion and Capture in Democratic Politics.”
2025	Honorable Mention Anna Callis, Tulane University “Economic Elites, Democratization, and Redistribution: Evidence from Latin America in the 19th and 20th Century.”
2024	Feyaad Allie, Harvard University “Power, Exclusion, and Identity: The Politics of Muslim Marginalization in India.”
2024	Roya Talibova, Vanderbilt University “Why Fight? Causes and Consequences of Joining a Tyrant’s Army.”
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”