Ning Leng, assistant professor at the McCourt School, was awarded the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award.
Assistant Professor Ning Leng was awarded the APSA’s 2026 Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award for her book, Politicizing Business: How Firms are Made to Serve the Party-State in China, an annual recognition to honor a book in any field of political science that exemplifies qualities such as broad ambition, originality and promise of having a substantive impact on the overall discipline.
In the book, Leng reveals a hidden dimension of China’s political economy: the Chinese state has never granted businesses full autonomy, and officials systematically treat firms as political instruments, extracting services that advance careers and maintain social control, often at the expense of business interests and economic efficiency. Her findings draw on extensive fieldwork, including hundreds of interviews with government officials and business leaders, original datasets spanning decades and comparative case studies.
Leng’s research points to broader implications for how China’s economic model is understood. She argues the politicization of business isn’t an anomaly but an intentional feature of authoritarian governance, since the state cannot fully commit to protecting business autonomy without risking that firms become too powerful.
Read more about the award-winning book and Leng’s research.