Thought Leadership

“There’s an increasing awareness that good governance is one of the key drivers of human development … The department’s breadth of expertise in Politics and Public Administration combined with Hong Kong’s unique location between East and West makes it uniquely placed to develop global perspectives and new knowledge about what good governance means.” – Professor Robert Thomson

Professor Robert Thomson, the recently arrived Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, shares his long-standing fascination with Hong Kong and China and his plans for the Department

On July 1, 2024, Professor Robert Thomson arrived in Hong Kong to take up the post of Professor and Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration (PPA) at the Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU).  The move surprised many of Robert’s colleagues, as most of his research to date has focused on Western democracies and the European Union.  He explains that he was drawn to the international standing of HKU, the excellence of the colleagues he found in the PPA Department, and the opportunity to support the further development of the Department.  For a Political Scientist, Hong Kong is one of the most interesting places to be in the world, explains Robert, “It offers a front-row seat from which to examine the effects of the global shift in power brought by the rise of China.”

Robert’s international career has been characterised by a deep interest in and frequent visits to the region.  He was born in Scotland, where he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Strathclyde, which has been ranked as the top research department in Politics in the United Kingdom.  “Since my student days in the 1990s, I’ve been fascinated by China and Hong Kong,” he says.  “The negotiations between the United Kingdom (UK) and China about Hong Kong at that time were very prominent, and part of my fascination for this topic.”

He has also been a regular visitor to China, although this is the first time he has lived in an Asian country.  He served as a Professor of Politics at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where he spent seven years and became an Australian citizen before coming to HKU.  While in Australia, he visited China several times on behalf of the university.  “Obviously in Australia, the links with China are very important and very interesting,” he says.  Before that, he spent four years as Professor of Politics and Head of the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, his alma mater, a position that entailed regular visits to China as the university – like others in the UK – established relationships with Chinese universities.  Prior to this, he spent seven years at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, in the Department of Political Science, after completing his PhD at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Understanding the Rules of the Game

He was attracted to political studies because of its influence in determining people’s lives and as a means of understanding the world around him.

“At one level, the study of politics is like any social science or natural science – we just want to understand how things work,” he says.  “Beyond that, though, there’s an increasing awareness that good governance is one of the key drivers of human development. Governance is about the formal and informal rules of the games and the way in which those rules are enforced.  That’s a large part of the explanation as to why some places are better to live in than others.”

Robert’s new living environment will likely influence his own research, which he continues to work on alongside his teaching and leadership responsibilities.  He recently completed a co-authored book that explores how globalisation impacts what political parties promise voters in established democracies and what they are able to deliver.

“Being here in Hong Kong will undoubtedly affect the focus of my research.  I think it will become more comparative and globally oriented than it perhaps would otherwise be,” he predicts.

Global Perspectives

He says Hong Kong’s uniqueness as a city with a deeply rooted Chinese culture and Western influence makes it an interesting place from which to explore the theme of “developing global perspectives”.

“That’s essentially a reference to the importance of understanding different points of view that are rooted in quite different social and cultural systems,” he explains.  “I think that’s a very important message, particularly in these times when what we see in some political systems is a lack of any sort of effort to really engage with alternative points of view.  It’s an idea that is also very much in line with the way HKU sees itself as China’s global university.  What that means for us is that we want to study politics, governance and public administration in ways that draw on ideas and experiences from around the world.  And that has consequences for the types of people we want to engage with as academics and their fields of expertise.  We want to have specialists on China, South Asia, but also Western countries too.”

“The department’s breadth of expertise in politics and public administration combined with Hong Kong’s unique location between East and West makes it uniquely placed to develop global perspectives and new knowledge about what good governance means.”

Building an Empowering and Open Environment

With the support of Robert’s leadership, those academics – there are currently more than 20 in the PPA department, with plans to hire more – will find themselves encouraged to reach their potential.

“I relish the opportunity to be part of shaping a small unit within a bigger university,” he says.  “It’s a job where you can help a department to reach its full potential, which is always a collective enterprise.  A lot of academic leadership is really about empowering colleagues and making sure that they have an environment in which they can flourish.  Many people become academics because, in addition to their commitment to their fields of expertise, they really value autonomy – they value control over the content of their work.  Helping them to perform as well as they possibly can really requires that you create an environment in which they are really excited about their own research and can get on with it, and can bring their research into their teaching.”

He knew he was already off to a good start after meeting his new colleagues in the department.

“They were exactly the sort of people I would have wanted to hire in previous institutions I worked in – all very research-active, very well trained, very outward-looking, very international,” he says.

“A good department is one where there are friendly and productive conversations between lots of different people,” he says.  “What I’ve seen here is that people are generally very willing to get involved in developing the department.  Our department needs to make the most of that energy.”

Contributing writer: Liana Cafolla