John Gaus Award

John Gaus Award

Nominations are closed.

The Gaus Award honors a lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration.

This award was established to honor the contributions of Dr. Gaus to the public administration field. The award is presented at the APSA Annual Meeting and carries a cash prize of $2,000. The recipient delivers the Gaus Lecture at the APSA Annual Meeting.

Nomination Information

Eligibility: Self-nominations are accepted. 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.

Award Committee

Chair

Manny Teodoro, University of Wisconsin

Member

Gene A. Brewer, The University of Georgia

Member

Amanda Rutherford, Indiana University, Bloomington

Listing of Awardees

Year	Recipient	Affiliation
2025	Aseem Prakash	University of Washington
2024	Lael Keiser	University of Missouri
2023	Daniel Carpenter	Harvard University
2022	Frances Berry	Florida State University
2021	Christopher Hood	University of Oxford
2020	John M. Bryson	University of Minnesota
2019	J. Edward Kellough	University of Georgia
2018	Norma Riccucci	Rutgers University
2017	James L. Perry	Indiana University
2016	Rosemary O’Leary	University of Kansas
2015	Paul Light	New York University
2014	Barbara Romzek	American University
2013	Robert Durant	American University
2012	Beryl A. Radin	Georgetown University
2011	Hal Rainey	Universityof Georgia
2010	Steven J. Kelman	Harvard University
2009	Larry O’Toole	University of Georgia
2008	Donald F. Kettl	University of Pennsylvania
2007	Laurence Lynn, Jr.	Texas A&M University
2006	Kenneth J. Meier	Texas A&M University
2005	Vincent Ostrom	Indiana University
2004	Patricia W. Ingraham	Syracuse University
2003	Johan Olsen	ARENA, University of Oslo
2002	Hugh Heclo	George Mason University
2001	David Rosenbloom	American University
2000	Herbert A. Simon	Carnegie Mellon University
1999	H. George Frederickson	University of Kansas
1998	Louis C. Gawthrop	University of Baltimore
1997	James G. March	Stanford University
1996	Lynton K. Caldwell	Indiana University
1995	Charles E.Lindblom	Yale University
1994	James Q. Wilson	University of California, Los Angeles
1993	Francis E. Rourke	Johns Hopkins University
1992	Martha Derthick	University of Virginia
1991	Norton E. Long	University of Missouri, St. Louis
1990	Frederick C. Mosher (posthumously)	University of Virginia
1989	Aaron Wildavsky	University of California, Berkeley
1988	James W. Fesler	Professor Emeritus, Yale University
1987	C. Dwight Waldo	Maxwell School, Syracus University
1986	Herbert Kaufman	Boston College

Lecture Transcripts

The award lecture is published in PS: Political Science & Politics. These articles may be used for personal, non-commercial, or limited classroom use. For permissions for all other uses of this article please contact Cambridge University Press at permissions@cup.org.

2022 John Gaus Award Lecture: “Finding Common Ground: Innovation and Diffusion across Political Science and Public Management Research”
Frances S. Berry
2021 John Gaus Award Lecture: “Public Administration and the War Against COVID”
Christopher Hood
2020 John Gaus Award Lecture: “The Future of Strategizing by Public and Nonprofit Organizations”
John M. Bryson
2019 John Gaus Award Lecture: “Human Resources and Public Administration”
J. Edward Kellough
2018 John Gaus Award Lecture: “On Our Journey to Achieving Social Equity: The Hits and Misses”
Norma M. Riccucci

2017 John Gaus Award Lecture: “What If We Took Professionalism Seriously?”
James L. Perry
2016 John Gaus Award Lecture: “The New Guerrilla Government: Are Big Data, Hyper Social Media and Contracting Out Changing the Ethics of Dissent?”
Rosemary O’Leary

2015 John Gaus Award Lecture: “Vision + Action = Faithful Execution: Why Government Daydreams and How to Stop the Cascade of Breakdowns That Now Haunts It”
Paul C. Light
2014 John Gaus Award Lecture: “Living Accountability: Hot Rhetoric, Cool Theory, and Uneven Practice”
Barbara S. Romzek
2013 John Gaus Lecture: “Taking Time Seriously: Progressivism, the Business-Social Science Nexus, and the Paradox of American Administrative Reform”
Robert F. Durant
2012 John Gaus Lecture: “Reclaiming Our Past: Linking Theory and Practice”
Beryl A. Radin
2011 John Gaus Lecture: “Organizations, Politics, and Public Purposes: Analyzing Public Organizations and Public Management”
Hal G. Rainey
2010 John Gaus Lecture: “If You Want to Be a Good Fill-in-the-Blank Manager, Be a Good Plain-Vanilla Manager”
Steven Kelman
2009 John Gaus Lecture: “The Ties That Bind? Networks, Public Administration, and Political Science”
Laurence O’Toole, Jr.
2008 John Gaus Lecture: “Administrative Accountability and the Rule of Law”
Donald F. Kettl
2007 John Gaus Lecture: “New Frontiers of Public Administration: The Practice of Theory and the Theory of Practice”
Laurence E. Lynn, Jr.
2006 John Gaus Lecture: “The Public Administration of Politics, or What Political Science Could Learn from Public Administration”
Kenneth Meier
2005 John Gaus Lecture: “Citizen-Sovereigns: The Source of Contestability, the Rule of Law, and the Conduct of Public Entrepreneurship”
Vincent Ostrom
2004 John Gaus Lecture: “You Talking to Me? Accountability and the Modern Public Service”
Patricia Wallace Ingraham
2003 John Gaus Lecture: “Citizens, Public Administration and the Search for Theoretical Foundations”
Johan P. Olsen
2002 John Gaus Lecture: “The Spirit of Public Administration”
Hugh Heclo
2001 John Gaus Lecture: “Whose Bureaucracy Is This, Anyway? Congress’ 1946 Answer”
David H. Rosenbloom
2000 John Gaus Lecture: “Public Administration in Today’s World of Organizations and Markets”
Herbert A. Simon
1999 John Gaus Lecture: “The Repositioning of American Public Administration”
H. George Frederickson
1998 John Gaus Lecture: “The Human Side of Public Administration”
Louis C. Gawthrop
1997 John Gaus Lecture: “Administrative Practice, Organizational Theory, and Political Philosophy”
James G. March

Support for Scholarship

We are continually grateful for the contributions from APSA members and friends that make our work possible. Your donation helps continue the John Gaus Award for future scholars researching the field of public administration. Thank you for your support of APSA and scholars across the discipline.