It’s a clean sweep for Cambridge University Press at the American Political Science Association Awards

The Press has won an unprecedented four main category prizes and three section prizes in this year’s coveted American Political Science Association Awards it has been announced. The awards will be presented at the APSA Annual Meeting to be held in San Francisco on September 2.

Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association is the leading professional organization for the study of political science and serves more than 13,000 members in more than 80 countries.

Recognizing excellence in the study, teaching and practice of politics, APSA makes awards for the best dissertations, papers and articles, and books in the various subfields of the discipline, and for career achievement in research, teaching and service to the discipline. The roll call of APSA winners this year includes the authors of seven books published recently by the Press with four of those awards in major categories, including:

Volden and Wiseman: Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Congress / WINNER 2015 Gladys M. Kammerer Award

The Gladys M. Kammerer Award is given annually for the best book published during the previous calendar year in the field of U.S. national policy.

The awards committee said: “Volden and Wiseman make a major contribution to our understanding of the determinants and effects of legislative effectiveness; they help us to understand a policy process at the national level in the United States that has been characterized by gridlock and polarization. The authors shine a hopeful light on the study of nation’s first branch of government.”

Ansell and Samuels: Inequality and Democratization /WINNER 2015 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award

The Woodrow Wilson Award is given annually for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs. The award is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation at Princeton University.

The awards committee said:  “We read a number of outstanding books this year, from all major sub-fields of the discipline.  The authors asked big questions and marshalled substantial evidence to provide an answer.  In the end, we favored arguments that had the potential to “travel” widely, beyond a specific place, time, or part of government.  If the book could shed light on issues that mattered beyond the academy, so much the better.  Inequality and Democratization passed both of these tests with flying colors, and we congratulate Ben Ansell and David Samuels for their tremendous accomplishment.”

Baldez: Defying Convention / WINNER 2015 Victoria Schuck Award and 2015 Best Book Award, Human Rights Section

The Victoria Schuck Award is given annually for the best book published on women and politics.

The awards committee said: “We are pleased to recognize this very important contribution to the study of women and politics. In Defying Convention, Baldez addresses important and regretfully neglected puzzles regarding the failure of the U.S. to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In doing so, Baldez provides an extremely valuable, well-researched examination of what is at stake and the consequences of U.S. non-ratification for women in the U.S. and around the world.”

Francis: Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State / WINNER 2015 Ralph Bunche Award

Thachil: Elite Parties, Poor Voters / WINNER 2015 Luebbert Best Book Award, Comparative Politics Section and 2015 Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award, Political Organizations and Parties Section

Weitz-Shapiro: Curbing Clientelism in Latin America / WINNER 2015 Donna Lee Van Cott Book Award, Political Institutions Section, Latin American Studies Association

Benson: Shaping Immigration News / WINNER 2015 International Journal of Press/Politics Book Award

Lew Bateman, Senior Editor in Political Science at Cambridge University Press said:  ‘I’m surprised and overwhelmed that the Press has won so many APSA book awards this year. Although we have won one or two awards  since 2000 as well as section awards, this is the first time the Press has been so honoured by winning all four main category APSA awards as well as three section awards. Congratulations to the authors and to my hard working colleagues of CUP without whom this would not have been possible."

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