Dr Maya Tudor receives APSAs 2010 Gabriel A Almond prize
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Dr Tudors dissertation, entitled Twin Births, Divergent Democracies: The Social and Institutional Origins of Regime Outcomes in India and Pakistan, was recently awarded the 2010 Gabriel A. Almond prize for Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics.
The American Political Science Association awards the prize annually for the best dissertation in the field of comparative politics, such dissertations being nominated by respective departments. Her dissertation also received an Honourable Mention for APSAs 2010 Walter Burnham Award for the best dissertation in Politics and History.
In her dissertation, Dr Tudor posed the question of why India and Pakistan embarked upon divergent regime trajectories in the decade after their twin independences in 1947. By 1958, India had established itself as a constitutional democracy while Pakistan had descended into autocratic instability. She argues that the respective independence movements in each country were founded by different social classes who were motivated to create relatively stronger (India) and weaker (Pakistan) political parties. The core argument advanced is that respective party strength critically explains regime stability while respective class interests and their associated ideologies critically explain regime type.
Currently, Maya is editing her thesis into a book manuscript and drafting related articles for journal publication.
