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College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences  ·  Department of Asian and International Studies
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Prof  Mark R  THOMPSON 

M.A. and Ph.D., honours (Yale University), M.A. and B.A. (Cambridge University), B.A., magna cum laude (Brown University)

Professor of Politics and Head

Discipline: Political Science

Mark R. Thompson is Head and Professor of Politics, Department of Asian and International Studies (AIS) as well as Director, Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) at the City University of Hong Kong. He is president of the Hong Kong Political Science Association (HKPSA) and past president of the Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) 2013-14. He was previously professor of politics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, a lecturer/senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and an assistant professor at the Dresden University of Technology as well as at the Munich Federal Army University. He has held visiting positions at Keio University (Japan), the University of Passau (Germany), the University for Peace (Costa Rica), De La Salle University (Philippines), the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Stanford University (he was Lee Kong Chian Distinguished Fellow for Southeast Asian Studies at NUS and Stanford). He has received a major grant from the German Research Council and two Hong Kong government General Research Fund (GRF) grants, most recently on illiberal populist rule in the Philippines. He has made influential contributions to discussions about democratisation (democratic revolutions, stolen elections, the “moral economy of electoralism”), authoritarianism (“sultanism,” post-totalitarianism, “authoritarian modernism,” China’s “Singapore model,” “Asian values”), and leadership (female dynastic leaders, presidentialism, illiberal populist leaders). He is the author or editor of ten books, as well as over 100 journal articles and chapters.

Contact information
Office: YEUNG-Y7620
Phone: 3442-4483
Fax: 3442-0180
Email: mark.thompson@cityu.edu.hk
Website:
AC1 : Academic 1
MMW : Mong Man Wai Building
TYB : To Yuen Building
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Teaching
  • Political economy of East Asia
  • US Politics and Society
  • Authoritarianism and Democracy
Research Interests
  • Democracy in Southeast Asia
  • East Asian authoritarianism
  • Political Dynasties in Asia
Current/Recent Research Projects
  • The Rise of Illiberal Populist Rule in the Philippines (Research Grants Council, General Research Fund - GRF - grant);
  • Democracy and its Discontents in Southeast Asia (GRF grant);
  • The ‘Singapore Model’ and its Influence on China (CityU Strategic Research Grant)
Representative Publications
Books
  • China’s “Singapore Model” and Authoritarian Learning, edited with Stephan Ortmann (London: Routledge, 2020).
  • Governance and Democracy in the Asia-Pacific, edited with Stephen McCarthy (London: Routledge, 2020).
  • Authoritarian Modernism in East Asia (London: Palgrave, 2019)
  • The Routledge Handbook of the Contemporary Philippines, edited with Eric V. Batalla (London: Routledge, 2018).
  • Dynasties and Female Political Leaders in Asia: Gender, Power and Pedigree, edited with Claudia Derichs (Berlin/London: LIT Verlag, 2013)
  • Transformationen in Asien-Pazifikschen Raum (Transformations in the Asia-Pacific Region), with Oskar Kurer and Thomas Fröhlich (Munich: Allitera, 2007).
  • Politik in Japan: System, Reformprozesse und Aussenpolitik in internationaler Vergleich (Politics in Japan: System, Reform Processes and Foreign Policy in International Comparative Perspective), with Verena Bleichinger and Christina Frantz (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2006).
  • Frauen an der Macht: Dynastien und politische Führerinnen in Asien (Dynasties and Female Leaders in Asia), with Claudia Derichs (Passau: Passauer Beiträge zur Südostasienkunde, 2005).
  • Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (London: Routledge, 2004).
  • The Anti-Marcos Struggle: Personalistic Rule and Democratic Transition in the Philippines (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1996, 2nd ed. 1999).
Special Journal Issues/Sections
  • “The ‘Singapore Model’ and China's New Neo-Authoritarian Dream,” edited with Stephan Ortmann, The China Quarterly, Volume 236 (December 2018), pp. 930-945.
  • “Perilous Presidentialism in Southeast Asia?”, edited with Marco Buente, Contemporary Politics, 2018, 24, no. 3, pp. 251-360.
  • “The Early Duterte Presidency in the Philippines.” Editor. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 3/2016, pp. 3-186.
Refereed Journal Articles
  • “Southeast Asia’s Troubling Elections: Is there a Silver Lining? Journal of Democracy, 30, no. 4 (October), 149-157.
  • “Why Duterte Remains so Popular: The Failures of the Philippine’s Liberal Reformism,” Foreign Affairs, online edition (October 9, 2018).
  • “Mis-modeling Singapore: China’s Challenges in Learning from a City-State,” China Quarterly , with Stephan Ortmann (forthcoming 2018), part of a special issue on China’s ‘Singapore Model’ ed. with S. Ortmann.
  • “The Philippine Presidency in Southeast Asian Perspective: Imperiled and Imperious Presidents but not Perilous Presidentialism,” Contemporary Politics (published online 11 Dec. 2017), part of a special issue “Perilous Presidentialism in Southeast Asia?” ed. with M. Buente.
  • "Introduction. The Early Duterte Presidency in the Philippines," pp. 3-14 and "Bloodied Democracy: Duterte and the Death of Liberal Reformism in the Philippines," pp. 39-68 both in the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 35 , no. 3 (2016).
  • With Julio Teehankee, “The Vote in the Philippines: Electing a Strongman,” Journal of Democracy, 27:4 (October 2016), pp. 124-134.
  • “Populism and the Moral Economy of Electoralism in the Philippines and Thailand,” Journal of Developing Societies, 32: 3 (2016): pp. 1-24.
  • “Southeast Asia’s Subversive Voters: A Philippine Perspective,” Philippine Studies, 64, no. 2 (June 2016), pp. 265-87
  • with Stephan Ortmann, “China’s ‘Singapore Model’ and its Limits,” Journal of Democracy, 27, no. 1 (January 2016), pp. 39-48.
  • “Democracy with Asian Characteristics,” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 74, no. 4 (November 2015), pp. 875-887.
  • “The Politics Philippine Presidents Make: Presidential Style, Patronage-based or Regime Relational?” Critical Asian Studies (September 2014), pp. 433-460.
  • With Stephan Ortmann, “China's Obsession with Singapore: Learning Authoritarian Modernity,” Pacific Review (May 2014), pp. 433-455.
  • “Asia’s Hybrid Dynasties,” Asian Affairs, XLIII, no. II, July 2012, pp. 204-220.
  • “Das Ueberleben des Totalitaritarismus und Developmentalism in Ostasien” (The Survival of Totalitarianism and Developmentalism in East Asia), WeltTrends: Zeitschrift fuer Internationale Politik, Nr 81 (1/2012).
  • “Reformism v. Populism in the Philippines,” Journal of Democracy 21, no. 4 (October 2010), pp. 154-168.
  • “Japan’s German Path and Asia’s Flying Geese Formation,” Asian Journal of Social Science , 28, no. 5 (2010), pp. 697-715.
  • with Philipp Kuntz, “More than the Final Straw: Stolen Elections as Revolutionary Triggers,” Comparative Politics, 41, no. 3 (April 2009), pp. 253-272.
  • “People Power Sours: Uncivil Society in Thailand and the Philippines,” Current History 107, issue 712 (November 2008), pp. 381-387.
  • “Presidentas and People Power in Comparative Asian Perspective,” Philippine Political Science Journal, 28, no. 51 (2007), pp. 1-32.
  • with Ludmilla Lennartz, “The Making of Chancellor Merkel,” German Politics 15, no. 1 (2006), pp. 99-110.
  • with Philipp Kuntz, "Stolen Elections: The Case of the Serbian October," Journal of Democracy, 15, No. 4 (October 2004), pp. 159-172.
  • “Pacific Asia after ‘Asian Values’: Authoritarianism, Democracy, and ‘Good Governance’,” Third World Quarterly, 25, no. 6 (2004), pp. 1079-1095.
  • “Les présidentes Philippines: essai de comparaison asiatique” Peninsule (special edition: “Les Structures Politiques Traditionnelles a Lépreuve de la Democratie en asie du sud-est’) 48, 1 (2004), pp. 65-84.
  • “Female Leadership of Democratic Transitions in Asia,” Pacific Affairs, 75, no. 4 (Winter 2002-2003), pp. 535-555.
  • “To Shoot or not to Shoot: Post-Totalitarianism in China and Eastern Europe,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 31, No. 1 (October 2001), pp. 63-83.
  • “Whatever Happened to 'Asian Values'?” Journal of Democracy, 12, no. 4 (October 2001), pp. 154-165.
  • “Late Industrialisers, Late Democratisers: Developmental States in the Asia-Pacific,” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 4 (December 1996), pp. 625-647.
  • “Why and How East Germans Rebelled,” Theory and Society, vol. 25, no. 2 (April 1996), pp. 263-299.
  • “Off the Endangered List: Philippine Democratization in Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics, vol. 28, no. 2 (January 1996), pp. 179-205.
  • “The Limits of Democratisation in ASEAN,” Third World Quarterly, 14, no. 3 (1993), pp. 469-484.
  • With Yossi Shain, “The Role of Political Exiles in Democratic Transition: The Case of the Philippines,” Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. VI (1990), pp. 71-86.
  • With Gregory Slayton, “An Essay on Credit Arrangements between the IMF and the Republic of the Philippines: 1970-1983,” Philippine Review of Economics and Business, Vol. XXII, Nos. 1-2 (March & June, 1985), pp. 59-81.