The American Political Science Association (APSA) has named Professor Aseem Prakash the recipient of the 2025 John Gaus Award and Lectureship, one of the highest honors in the field of political science and public administration. The award celebrates a lifetime of exemplary scholarship that bridges these two disciplines.
Professor Prakash, the Walker Family Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle, was selected unanimously by the APSA committee for his path-breaking research that has reshaped the understanding of modern governance, particularly in the realm of environmental policy.
The John Gaus Award honors a scholar whose work exemplifies the joint tradition of political science and public administration, and whose contributions illuminate the interplay between political theory and practical governance. Professor Prakash’s extensive body of work—including eight scholarly books and over 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, cited over 18,000 times—powerfully fulfills this mission.
His nomination letter says the following about his research:
“Professor Prakash is best known for his path-breaking research on the role that private actors, including firms and non-governmental organizations, can play in promoting more stringent environmental standards even in the absence of effective state intervention. John Gaus traced the ‘ecology’ of public administration to the rise of the administrative state. An important implication of the rise of the administrative state, which manages a wide portfolio of activities, is the fiscal, technical, and political demands on state capacity. This has created governance shortfalls. While such shortfalls can cause state failure, they can also create space for the emergence of non-traditional forms of governance. Professor Prakash’s research, especially on environmental issues, has helped to bring “environment” into public administration in a variety of ways, including how businesses and NGOs can fill governance gaps. At the same time, his research has explored how these nontraditional governance mechanisms could lead to issues such as regulatory capture and accountability deficits."
“More recently, he has explored different dimensions of both climate mitigation and adaptation… In addition to studying the role of governments and businesses in the policy process, he has written extensively on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially about the issue of NGO accountability…”
A Legacy of Exemplary Scholarship
By bringing environmental concerns squarely into the conversation of public administration and rigorously analyzing the evolving tools of governance, Professor Prakash’s work has provided an essential roadmap for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners alike.
To honor this achievement, Professor Aseem Prakash will deliver the John Gaus Lecture on Friday, September 12, 2025, at 6:30 PM PDT as a featured event of the APSA Annual Meeting. The lecture will offer the academic community a chance to engage with the insights of one of the field’s most distinguished thought leaders.
Please join us in congratulating Professor Aseem Prakash on this well-deserved and distinguished honor.