Gary W. Cox is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. He is the author of The Efficient Secret, winner of the 2003 George Hallett Award; Making Votes Count, winner of the 2007 George Hallett Award; and Marketing Sovereign Promises, winner of the 2017 William Riker Book Award. Mark Dincecco is professor of political science at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Political Transformations and Public Finances and the coauthor of From Warfare to Wealth, winner of the 2018 William Riker Book Award. Yuhua Wang is the Ford Foundation Professor of Modern China Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of Tying the Autocrat's Hands and The Rise and Fall of Imperial China (Princeton), winner of the 2023 Gregory Luebbert Book Award.