Daniel Tavana, assistant professor of political science, received the Best Article award from the American Political Science Association’s Democracy & Autocracy and Middle East & North Africa Politics sections for his recently published American Journal of Political Science paper, “Endogenous opposition: Identity and ideology in Kuwaiti electoral politics.” The article discusses that in many authoritarian countries, elections are designed to help dictators stay in power: but in Kuwait, they’ve helped produce one of the region’s most powerful oppositions. The paper shows that candidates who campaign on broader ideological causes are far more likely to oppose the government once elected.
