The Government Department swept the highest awards of the American Political Science Association last week, with two professors honored and a third prize given for academic work done at Harvard.

James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government, won the Charles E. Merriam prize, often considered the association's most prestigious award, Samuel H. Beer. Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and the president of the association, said Sunday.

The association grants the Merriam Award to a person whose work has contributed significantly to the art of government through the study of public policy, Wilson said yesterday.

The political science association also awarded a prize to Sidney Verba, chairman of the Government Department, for co-authoring the best political science book published in the past year.

Verba received the Woodrow Wilson Award for "The Changing American Voter," a book showing how voters in the last 20 years have moved away from political parties to become more independent, he said.

Louis Hartz received the Lippincott Award for a book written over 15 years ago that has made a lasting contribution to the subject. He wrote "The Liberal Tradition in America" while teaching at Harvard.

The awards, Verba said Sunday, carry a monetary value of about $1000 each. Most of the other prizes given at the association's annual meeting are awarded for doctoral dissertations, he added.