The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants Under Increasing Autocracy, by Associate Professor of Sociology Jaime Kucinskas, was recently named this year’s winner of the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Best Book Award.
In his email notifying Kucinskas of the award, Stephen Holt, chair of the selection committee for the public and nonprofit management section of the Academy of Management, shared some quotes from the selection committee praising The Loyalty Trap:
- “An outstanding timely book that combines exceptional qualitative evidence with robust theoretical framing to explain the severe challenges career civil servants face while navigating democratic backsliding.”
- “The Loyalty Trap stands out in every category. It provides rigorous accounting and analysis of the civil service during a still-ongoing emergency: the United States’ slide into authoritarianism.”
- “The author undertakes a highly impressive data collection effort to help readers understand the experiences of public servants in times of major changes in political administration. The writing is engaging and accessible, maintaining a great balance between great storytelling and reporting research results.”
- “This book is a strong start for focusing our attention on this important intellectual project we all have before us.”
The Loyalty Trap was also short-listed for The Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award from the Political Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.
Posted June 24, 2026
