The Leonard D. White prize, supported by the University of Chicago is awarded yearly for the best dissertation in the field of public administration. It is named after historian Leonard D. White

Winners

Year Author (Institution) Dissertation 2024 Sarah Rozenblum Cornell University Why Do Governments Ignore Their Own Experts? The Role of Scientific Advice in Covid-19 Vaccine Policy in France and the United States 2023 Kaylyn Jackson Schiff Emory University The Digital Citizen: The Impact of Technology on Public Participation and Government Responsiveness 2022 Sarah James Harvard University When is Hindsight 20/20? The Politics of Acknowledging and Revising Failed Policies 2021 Anthony DeMattee Emory University Domesticating Civil Society: How and Why Governments Use Laws to Regulate CSOs 2020 Angela Young-Shin Park University of Kansas Beyond Adoption: The Influence of Local Institutional Arrangements on Sustainability Policy Implementation and Management 2019 Chad Levinson University of Chicago Moral Subsidy: The Origins of Influential Extra-Governmental Organizations in US National Security Politics 2018 Jennifer Mei Jun Yim University of Utah Delinquency's Treatment: Why Interactions Produce Policy and Identity in Secure Juvenile Facilities 2017 Alan Zarychta University of Colorado at Boulder It Takes More Than a Village: Governance and Public Services in Developing Countries 2016 Bruce Jones University of Texas, Dallas An fMRI Study of the Reward Preferences of Government and Business Leaders 2015 Katharine Bradley University of Michigan Who Lobbies the Lobbyists? Bureaucratic Influence on State Medicaid Legislation 2014 Viridiana Rios Harvard University How Government Structure Encourages Criminal Violence: The causes of Mexico's Drug War 2011 Amanda M. Girth American University Accountability and Discretion in the Age of Contracting: When and Why Do Public Managers Implement Sanctions for Unsatisfactory Contract Performance? 2010 Mikhail PryadilnikovHarvard University The State and Markets in Russia: Understanding the Development of Bureaucratic Implementation Capacities through the Study of Regulatory Reform, 2001–2008 2009 Zachary OberfieldUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison Becoming the Man: How Street-Level Bureaucrats Develop Their Workplace Identities and Views 2008 Matthew DullUniversity of Wisconsin The Politics of Results: Comprehensive Reform and Institutional Choice 2007 Daniel W. GingerichHarvard University Corruption in General Equilibrium: Political Institutions and Bureaucratic Performance in South America 2006 David PittsUniversity of Georgia Diversity, Representation and Performance: Evidence about Ethnicity in Public Organizations 2005 Sergio FernandezUniversity of Georgia Explaining Contracting Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis of Contracting for Services among Local Governments 2004 Neal D. Woods (University of Kentucky)and Young Han Chun (University of Georgia) Rethinking Regulation: Institutions and Interests in State Regulatory Enforcement and Goal Ambiguity in Public Organizations: Dimensions, Antecedents, and Comparisons 2003 No Award Given Not Applicable 2002 Gregory HuberPrinceton University Interests & Influence: Explaining Patterns of Enforcement in Government Regulation of Occupational Safety 2001 Jered CarrFlorida State University The Political Economy of Local Government Boundary Change: State Laws, Local Actors and Collective Action 2000 William W. NewmannUniversity of Pittsburgh The Pattern of Foreign Policy Decision Making: Developing an Evolutionary Model 1999 Mark CassellUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison Public Agencies in a Private World: A Comparison of the Federal Republic of Germany's Treuhandanstalt and the United States' Resolution Trust Corporation 1998 Craig W. ThomasUniversity of California, Berkeley Bureaucratic Landscapes: Interagency Cooperation and the Preservation of Biodiversity 1997 Amy ZegartStanford University In Whose Interest? The Making of American National Security Agencies 1996 Sally Coleman SeldenUniversity of Georgia Representative Bureaucracy: Examining the Potential for Administrative Responsiveness 1995 Robert C. LiebermanHarvard University Race and the Development of the American Welfare State from the New Deal to the Great Society 1994 Marissa Martino GoldenUniversity of California, Berkeley Bureaucratic Behavior in a Political Setting: Reactions to the Reagan Administration in Four Federal Agencies 1993 James Anthony FalkUniversity of Georgia Explaining Infant Mortality: An Assessment of County Governments in Georgia 1992 Bartholomew H. Sparrow University of Chicago From the Outside In: The Effects of World War II on the American State 1991 Alan Abramson Yale University Responsive Budgeting: The Accommodation of Federal Budgeting to Different Programs and Spending Regimes 1990 Shui Yan Tang Indiana University Institutions and Collective Action in Irrigation Systems 1989 Roy T. Meyers University of Michigan Microbudgetary Strategies and Outcomes 1988 Chris C. DemchakUniversity of California, Berkeley War, Technological Complexity, and the U.S. Army 1987 John DiIulio, Jr.Harvard University Governing Prisons: A Comparative Study of Correctional Management 1986 Elisabeth Hollister SimsUniversity of California, Berkeley Rural Development and Public Policy: Agricultural Institutions and Technological Change in the Indian and Pakistani Punjab 1985 Donald W. ChisholmUniversity of California, Berkeley Informal Organization and the Problem of Coordination 1984 Rondal B. HoskinsUniversity of Georgia Within-Year Appropriations Changes in Georgia State Government: The Implications for Budget Theory 1983 John SwainNorthern Illinois University An Evaluation of the Public Choice Approach to Structuring Local Government in Metropolitan Areas 1982 Judith GruberYale University Democracy versus Bureaucracy: The Problem of Democratic Control 1981 J. Serge TaylorUniversity of California, Berkeley Environmentalists in the Bureaucracy: Environmental Impact Analysis in the Forest Service and the Army Corps of Engineers 1980 John Edward ChubbUniversity of Minnesota Interest Groups and the Bureaucracy: The Politics of Energy 1979 Daniel S. MetlayUniversity of California, Berkeley Error Correction in Bureaucracy 1978 Frederic Allan BergersonVanderbilt University The Army Gets an Air Force: The Tactics and Process of Insurgent Bureaucratic Politics 1977George Woodrow Downs, Jr.University of Michigan Bureaucracy, Innovation and Public Policy 1976 Robert RichUniversity of Chicago An Investigation of Information Gathering and Handling in Seven Federal Bureaucracies: A Case Study of the Continuous National Survey 1975 Arnold KanterYale University and Harry KranzAmerican University The Organizational Politics of National Security Policy: A Budgetary Perspective and A More Representative Bureaucracy: The Adequacy and Disability of Minority and Female Population Parity in Public Employment 1974 James Norris DanzigerStanford University Budget-Making and Expenditure Variations in English County Boroughs 1973 Douglas T. Yates, Jr.Yale University Neighborhood Democracy: The Politics and Impacts of Decentralization 1972 Ezra N. SuleimanColumbia University and Jessica WolfYale University Administration, Politics and the Higher Civil Service in France and Toward a Model of Inter-organizational Behavior: Two Case Studies in France 1971 Larry B. HillTulane University The International Transfer of Political Institutions: A Behavioral Analysis of the New Zealand Ombudsman 1970 Gary W. WyniaUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison Policy and Bureaucracy in Center America: A Comparative Study 1969 Russell MurphyYale University Policy Innovation and Political Strategy in an American City: The Formative Years of New Haven, Connecticut's Anti-Poverty Project 1968 Clyde D. McKee, Jr.University of Connecticut The Politics of Council-Manager Forms Having and Not Having the Partisan Election 1967 John Patrick CrecineCarnegie Institute of Technology A Computer Simulation Model of Municipal Resource Allocation 1966 No award given Not applicable 1965 No award given Not applicable 1964 No award given Not applicable 1963 Karl A. HochschwenderYale University The Politics of Civil Service Reform in West Germany 1962 Simon D. PerryMichigan State University The Conflict of Expectations and Roles in Policy Science Behavior 1961 Laurin L. HenryUniversity of Chicago Presidential Transitions 1960 Daniel J. ElazarUniversity of Chicago Intergovernmental Relations in Nineteenth Century American Federalism 1959 Dean E. MannUniversity of California, Berkeley The Administration of Water Resources in the State of Arizona

External links List of award recipients (1959-) at American Political Science Association