Merze Tate - Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award - American Political Science Association (APSA)

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APSA Best Book

Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award

Nominations are closed.

APSA is pleased to announce that the APSA Best Book Award has been renamed the Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award. The award criteria will remain the same – honoring the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.

The Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award honors the best book on government, politics, or international affairs. The award is presented at the APSA Annual Meeting and carries a cash prize of $2,000.

Nomination Information

Eligibility: Nominees do not have to be members of APSA, affiliated with an institution in the United States, or an American citizen in order to be considered for an award. It is not compulsory that authors be political scientists.
Books must have been published in the previous calendar year to be eligible for the current awards cycle (books for the 2026 award must be published in 2025). Many books contain both a publication date and a copyright date, and these may differ. Eligibility is determined by the earlier of these dates that is printed with the publication information at the front of the book. Edited books are ineligible for nomination.
Individuals: Please contact the publisher and ask for either an eBook to submit via the online application portal or to have a physical copy of the nominated book mailed directly to each award committee member. It is recommended that physical copies of the nominated work be mailed to each committee member in addition to uploading an eBook.
Self-nominations are accepted. If you nominate yourself for a book award, you assume responsibility for contacting your publisher and having copies of your book sent to the award committee either virtually or via mail.
Publishers: Please submit your nomination online through the APSA application portal. It is recommended that physical copies of the nominated work be mailed to each committee member in addition to uploading an eBook.

Award Committee

Chair

Jane Junn, University of Southern California

Member

Irasema Coronado, Arizona State University

Member

Sebastian Saiegh, University of California, San Diego

Member

David Samuels, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Member

Ayse Zarakol, University of Cambridge

Member

Jennifer Mitzen, Ohio State University

Listing of Awardees

Year	Author	Title	Publisher
2025	Volha Charnysh	Uprooted: How Post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe	Cambridge University Press
2024	Olukunle P. Owolabi, Villanova University	Ruling Emancipated Slaves and Indigenous Subjects	Oxford University Press
2023	Jacob Grumbach, University of Washington	Laboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics	Princeton University Press
2022	Diana C. Mutz, University of Pennsylvania Cigdem V. Sirin (University of Texas at El Paso), Nicholas A. Valentino (University of Michigan), and Jose D. Villalobos (University of Texas at El Paso)	Winners and Losers: The Psychology of Foreign Trade and Seeing Us in Them: Social Divisions and the Politics of Group Empathy Seeing Us in Them: Social Divisions and the Politics of Group Empathy	Princeton University Press
2021	Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird	Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior	Princeton University Press
2020	Amy E. Lerman	Good Enough for Government Work: The Public Reputation Crisis in America (And What We Can Do to Fix It)	University of Chicago Press
2019	Kristina Miler	Poor Representation: Congress and the Politics of Poverty in the United States	Cambridge University Press
2018	Daniel Ziblatt	Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy	Harvard University Press
2017	Eric Schickler	Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932-1965	Princeton University Press
2016	Prerna Singh	How Solidarity Works for Welfare: Subnationalism and Social Development in India	Cambridge University Press
2015	Ben Ansell and David Samuels	Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time	Cambridge University Press
2014	Ira Katznelson	Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time	W.W. Norton & Company
2014	Denise Kiernan	The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II	Touchstone/Simon & Schuster
2013	Martin Gilens	Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America	Princeton University Press/Russell Sage Foundation
2012	Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan	Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict	Columbia University Press
2011	Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell	American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us	Simon and Schuster
2010	Beth A. Simmons	Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics	Cambridge University Press
2009	Jens Meierhenrich	The Legacies of Law: Long-Run Consequences of Legal Development in South Africa	Cambridge University Press
2008	Etel Solingen	Nuclear Logics: Contrasting Paths in East Asia	Princeton University Press
2007	Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson	Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy	Cambridge University Press
2007	Stathis Kalyvas	The Logic of Violence in Civil War	Cambridge University Press
2006	Philip E. Tetlock	Expert Political Judgement: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?	Princeton University Press
2005	Kathleen Thelen	How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan	Cambridge University Press
2005	Steve I. Wilkinson	Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India	Cambridge University Press
2004	Martha Finnemore	The Purpose of Intervention: Changing Beliefs about the Use of Force	Cornell University Press
2003	Mark Beissinger	Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State	Cambridge University Press
2002	Tali Mendelberg	The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality	Princeton University Press
2001	Adam Przeworski, Michael Alvarex, Jose Antonio Cheibub, and Fernado Limongi	Democracy and Development	Cambridge University Press
2000	Barry O’Neill	Honor, Symbols, and War	University of Michigan Press
1999	Rodney E. Hero	Faces of Inequality: Social Diversity in American Politics	Oxford University Press
1998	Gary W. Cox	Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World’s Electoral Systems	Cambridge University Press
1997	Jane Junn, Norman Nie and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry	Education and Democratic Citizenship in America	University of Chicago Press
1996	Herbert Kitschelt	The Radical Right in Western Europe	University of Michigan Press
1995	Beth A. Simmons	Who Adjusts? Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy During the Interwar Years	Princeton University Press
1994	Carol M. Swain	Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress	Harvard University Press
1993	Theda Skocpol	Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States	The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
1992	Paul M. Sniderman, Richard A. Brody, and Philip E. Tetlock	Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology	Cambridge University Press
1991	Charles E. Lindblom	Inquiry and Change	Yale University Press/Russell Sage Foundation
1990	Robert A. Dahl	Democracy and Its Critics	Yale University Press
1989	Larry Bartels	Presidential Primaries and the Dynamics of Public Choice	Princeton University Press
1988	Robert Gilpin	The Political Economy of International Relations	Princeton University Press
1987	Peter Hall	Governing the Economy	Oxford University Press
1987	Philip E. Converse and Roy Pierce	Political Representation in France	Harvard University Press
1986	Peter Katzenstein	Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe	Cornell University Press
1985	Barry R. Posen	The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain and Germany between the World Wars	Cornell University Press
1984	George Th. Mavrogordatos	Stillborn Republic: Social Coalitions and Party Strategies in Greece, 1922-1936	University of California Press
1983	G. Bingham Powell	Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and Violence	Harvard University Press
1982	Paul E. Peterson	City Limits	University of Chicago Press
1981	John P. Gaventa	Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley	University of Illinois Press
1980	Leslie H. Gelb with Richard K. Betts	The Irony of Vietnam	Brookings Institution
1979	Richard F. Fenno, Jr.	Home Style	Little Brown
1978	Charles E. Lindblom	Politics and Markets	Basic Books
1977	Norman H. Nie, Sidney Verba, and John R. Petrocik	The Changing American Voter	Harvard University Press
1976	Robert A. Alford	Health Care Politics	University of Chicago Press
1975	Hugh Heclo	Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden	Yale University Press
1974	Robert A. Scalapino and Chong-sik Lee	Communism in Korea	University of California Press
1973	Michael Brecher	The Foreign Policy System of Israel: Setting, Images, Processes	Yale University Press
1972	David E. Apter	Choice and the Politics of Allocation	Yale University Press
1971	Ted Robert Gurr	Why Men Rebel	Princeton University Press
1970	David Butler and Donald E. Stokes	Political Change in Britain	St. Martin’s Press
1969	Robert G. Dixon, Jr.	Democratic Representation	Oxford University Press
1968	Duncan MacRae, Jr.	Parliament, Parties, and Society in France, 1946-1958	St. Martin’s Press
1967	Barrington Moore, Jr.	Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy	Beacon Press
1966	Samuel H. Beer	British Politics in the Collectivist Age	Alfred A. Knopf
1965	Robert E. Agger, Daniel Goldrich, and Bert E. Swanson	The Rulers and the Ruled	John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
1965	Samuel J. Eldersveld	Political Parties: A Behavioral Analysis	Rand McNally
1964	Raymond A. Bauer, Ithiel de Sola Pool, and Anthony Lewis Dexter	American Business and Public Policy	Atherton Press
1963	Inis L. Claude	Power and International Relations	Random House
1962	Robert A. Dahl	Who Governs?	Yale University Press
1961	Richard Neustadt	Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership	John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
1960	Arnold Brecht	Political Theory	Princeton University Press
1959	Christian Bay	The Structure of Freedom	Stanford University Press
1959	James S. Coleman	Nigeria: Background to Nationalism	University of California
1958	Henry A. Kissinger	Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy	Harper & Row
1958	Rexford G. Tugwell	The Democratic Roosevelt	Doubleday and Company
1957	James MacGregor Burns	The Lion and the Fox	Harcourt, Brace and Company
1956	Louis Hartz	The Liberal Tradition in America	Harcourt, Brace and Company
1955	Jacobus ten Broek, Edward N. Barnhart, and Floyd W. Matson	Prejudice, War, and the Constitution	University of California Press
1954	Bertram M. Gross	The Legislative Struggle: A Study in Social Combat	McGraw-Hill Book Company
1953	Clinton Rossiter	Seedtime of the Republic	Brace & Company
1952	Samuel Lubbell	The Future of American Politics	Harper & Row
1951	John B. Herz	Political Realism and Political Idealism	University of Chicago Press
1950	Stephen K. Bailey	Congress Makes a Law	Columbia University Press
1949	V.O. Key	Southern Politics in State and Nation	Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
1948	Leonard D. White	The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History	Macmillan Company
1947	Robert M. MacIver	The Web of Government	Macmillan Company

Beginning in 2021, APSA presented the APSA Best Book Award in lieu of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award which had been the award’s longstanding name since its inception. During that time, the APSA Council approved the creation of an ad-hoc committee to determine the new name. In 2023 APSA officially announced that the APSA Best Book Award had been renamed the Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award. The award is named after two inspiring women, Dr. Merze Tate and Dr. Elinor Ostrom, who were pioneers in the political science discipline and beyond. Dr. Tate was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in Government while Dr. Ostrom was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work on common pool resources. Both women contributed invaluable research and scholarship to the discipline of political science while facing prejudice relating to gender and race. Dr. Tate and Dr. Ostrom worked tirelessly to advance educational and professional opportunities for students and faculty, particularly scholars of color and women in the disciplines of political science, history, and economics. APSA is proud to name this award in their honor.