David E. Lewis, professor of political science at
Vanderbilt
University, has been awarded the Herbert A. Simon Best Book Award for The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance.
The American Political Science Association’s Public Administration Section gives the award annually for the best book on public administration that has made a significant contribution to public administration scholarship. The book must have been published in the last three to five years.
Lewis’ book, published earlier this year by Princeton University Press, examines how and why presidents use political appointees to fill positions in federal agencies and how those choices affect government performance, both good and bad.
In the book, Lewis looks at presidential appointments dating back to the 1960s to show how the process has varied by administration and how various appointees have impacted agency performance. His research found that presidents make political appointments, even bad ones, because they need the leadership in these agencies to respond to presidential direction. However, when agencies function poorly and bad things happen, presidents come under heavy criticism for injecting politics into the process.
Lewis recently joined the Vanderbilt faculty after previously teaching at
Princeton
University
College of
William and Mary
Stanford
University
Lewis will receive the award at the association’s annual meeting in
Boston in late August.
Media contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
Annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu