John P Burns

Professor
Social Sciences
University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Biography

John P Burns is Dean of Social Sciences and Chair Professor of Politics and Public Administration at The University of Hong Kong. He obtained undergraduate degrees from St. Olaf College and Oxford University and a Ph.D. in political science specializing in China from Columbia University. His early research focused on political participation rural China during the Cultural Revolution. More recently he has focused on public administration in China, including Hong Kong, specializing in public sector human resource management, civil service reform, party-government relations, and public sector reform. His most recent book is Government Capacity and the Hong Kong Civil Service (Oxford, 2004 and 2010). He is the author or editor of eight books, and his articles have appeared in The China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Pacific Affairs, International Review of Administrative Sciences and Public Administration and Development. He is Associate Editor of Administration and Society and was a member of the Editorial Committee of The China Quarterly until 2011.

Research Intrest

Political participation rural China Politics and Public Administration

List of Publications
"Administrative Reform in Hong Kong: An Institutional Analysis of Food Safety" Research in Public Policy Analysis and Management 17 (2008), 21-38.
"Changing Government Structures and the Evolution of Public Service Bargains in Hong Kong" (with Li Wei and B. Guy Peters) International Review of Administrative Sciences 2013: 79: 131-48.
"Arrangements for Managing the Public Work-force" (with Wang Xiaoqi) in OECD, OECD Urban Policy Reviews: China, 2015 (Paris: OECD, 2015), pp. 211-219.
The Political Economy of Chinese Food Safety Regulation: Distributing Adulterated Milk Powder in Mainland China and Taiwan" (with Li Jing and Wang Xiaoqi) in Tetty Havinga, Frans van Waarden, and Donal Casey (eds.) The Changing Landscape of Food Governance (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2015), 96-116.
The Impact of External Change on Civil Service Values in Post-Colonial Hong Kong" (with Li Wei) The China Quarterly No. 222 (June 2015), pp. 522-546.