Jacob Grumbach’s Laboratories against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics has won the 2023 Merze Tate-Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award for the best book in government, politics, and international affairs, given by the American Political Science Association (APSA).
Drawing on a wealth of new data on state policy, public opinion, money in politics, and democratic performance, Laboratories against Democracy traces the increasing frequency with which national, partisan agendas are flowing through state-level politics. Grumbach charts how national groups are using state governmental authority to suppress the vote, gerrymander districts, and erode the very foundations of democracy itself. Revealing the profound consequences for public policy and indeed American democracy, Laboratories against Democracy asks whether state governments are mitigating political crises or accelerating them. Hailed as a “landmark book” (The New Republic) and praised for for its “lucid analysis” and “pinpoint diagnosis of a troubling political trend” (Publishers Weekly), Laboratories against Democracy is essential reading for this precious moment in American politics.
Given annually by APSA since 1947, the best book award was until 2020 called the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award and was renamed in 2023 to honor two inspiring women in political science scholarship. Laboratories against Democracy is the 13th PUP book to win. Recent honorees include Winners and Losers: The Psychology of Foreign Trade by Diana Mutz (2021) and Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior by Ismail White and Chryl Laird (2020 winner).
Also honored this year by APSA is R. Douglas Arnold’s Fixing Social Security: The Politics of Reform in a Polarized Age, winner of the 2023 Gladys Kammerer Award for the best book published in the field of U.S. national policy. A “tour de force” (Ira Katznelson), Fixing Social Security is a comprehensive look at how Social Security has shaped American politics and why it faces insolvency.
Princeton University Press extends our congratulations to both Professor Arnold and Professor Grumbach on these honors.