Section Awards
The Formal Theory Section presents awards at the APSA Annual Meeting. Nominations for the 2027 awards are due by 11:59 pm Pacific time on March 1, 2027. The nomination form is not open yet.
Best Article by a Non-Tenured Scholar
Committee (2025-2026): Hülya Eraslan; Justin Fox; Germán Gieczewski; Bahar Leventoglu
This award is given to the author(s) of the best paper published in the previous calendar year by a non-tenured scholar. To be eligible for this award, an article must have been published during the previous calendar year and the recipient must not have tenure on the date the article is first published on a journal’s website. An article may only be nominated once and it may be nominated for either the year in which it is first published on a journal’s website (e.g., as an “OnlineFirst” or “FirstView” article) or the year in which it appears in a print issue (but not both).
Elaine Yao. 2026. “Brook No Compromise: How to Negotiate a United Front,” American Journal of Political Science 70(2): 643-657.
Best Article
Committee (2025-2026): Avidit Acharya; Arjada Bardhi; Susan Hyde; Arturas Rozenas
This award is given to the author(s) of the best paper published in the previous calendar year. To be eligible for this award, an article must have been published during the previous calendar year. An article may only be nominated once and it may be nominated for either the year in which it is first published on a journal’s website (e.g., as an “OnlineFirst” or “FirstView” article) or the year in which it appears in a print issue (but not both).
Brenton Kenkel, Peter Schram. 2025. “Uncertainty in crisis bargaining with multiple policy options,” American Journal of Political Science 69(1): 194-209.
Past Recipients
Best APSA Paper
Committee (2025-2026): Peter Buisseret; Michael Gibilisco; Branislav L. Slantchev; Elaine Yao
This award is given to the author(s) of the best paper presented at APSA at the previous Annual Meeting. To be eligible for this award, a paper must have been presented during the previous Annual Meeting.
Zanhui Liu, Zhaotian Luo, Yucheng Qiu, Shuyi Yu. “A Relational Theory of Power Alternation,” APSA Annual Meeting.
Past Recipients
| 2025 | Jack Paine | The Threat-Enhancing Effect of Authoritarian Power Sharing |
| 2024 | Joseph Ruggiero | What Makes a World War? A Structural Analysis of Integration |
| 2023 | Peter Buisseret, Carlo Prato | Politics Transformed? Electoral Competition Under Ranked Choice Voting |
Honorable Mentions
Journal of Theoretical Politics Ostrom Award
Committee (2025-2026): Natalia Garbiras-Díaz; Alex Hirsch; Federica Izzo; In Song Kim
This award is given to the author(s) of the best article published in the Journal of Theoretical Politics within the previous two calendar years. It is administered jointly with the Journal of Theoretical Politics, and winners are selected by the JTP editors together with a Section committee.
Dahjin Kim, Gechun Lin, Keith E. Schnakenberg. 2024. “Informative Campaigns, Overpromising, and Policy Bargaining,” Journal of Theoretical Politics 36(4).
Chitralekha Basu, Matthew Knowles. 2025. “The revelation incentive for issue engagement in campaigns,” Journal of Theoretical Politics 37(4).
Past Recipients
| 2025 | Ken Yahagi, Yohei Yamaguchi | Law enforcement and political misinformation |
| 2025 | Benjamin Broman | Indirect rule and mass threat: Two paths to direct rule |
| 2024 | Michael Gibilisco | Mowing the Grass |
| 2024 | Hannah K. Simpson | Access to Justice in Revenue-Seeking Legal Institutions |
| 2023 | Kisoo Kim, Anthony Fowler | An information-based explanation for partisan media sorting |
| 2022 | Charles R. Hankla, Raúl A. Ponce-Rodríguez, Eunice Heredia-Ortiz, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez | The politics of fiscal federalism: Building a stronger decentralization theorem |
| 2022 | J. Andrew Harris, Robin Harding, Avidit Acharya | Security in the absence of a state: traditional authority livestock trading and maritime piracy in northern Somalia |