HKU Moodle

We’re all living in a fast-changing world — now largely driven by technology and innovation — from the way we shop, where we get information, and to the future of financial services. Meanwhile, we acknowledge the biggest challenge to technology and innovation is no longer the development of new technology itself but rather how to get users and policymakers to first understand the pros and cons of emerging technologies, and then how to apply them to the new digital society in a responsible way, as the general public do expect higher efficiency in delivery of public services, as well as better control of our own data privacy. Those are the questions and issues we will explore in this course. The instructor designed the course based on his first-hand long-time experience at Meta (previously known as Facebook) as well as a witness of the rapid changes of regulatory landscapes across the globe, which is becoming more and more divided. Students need to learn and assess which internet governance models will be more desirable and why. We will also touch on geopolitics and learn why technology lies at the heart of growing US-China tensions, for example, AI, electric vehicles, and the semiconductor business.

POLI8017: Workshop in Public Affairs – Collective Action and Governance

The problem of collective action is a canonical problem in public administration and governance more generally.  What levers do governments have to encourage or discourage this behavior? 

The course is built around the work of Nobel Laureates Elinor Ostrom, James Buchanan, and, most recently Joel Mokyr, who dedicated their lives to try and provide an answer to the simple and yet overwhelming question of the political economy of simple elements of public administration and governance under the long shadow of the biggest challenge of them all: the problem of collective action.

We will focus on microfoundations, assumptions about how individuals make decisions and the setting in which they decide, decision processes and decision contexts, as well as insights from the study of real-world interactions.  Scholars across disciplines have developed a wide range of approaches to understanding how governance and public administration address the challenge of collective action, how they often fail to do so, and what we can do about it. 

Your grade will be based on an equal weighting of three factors:

• Short (100-150 words) responses to questions distributed in advance of class.  These responses must be submitted prior to class. There will be no papers on the first day of classes (meetings 1 and 2). 
• Your participation in class discussion and exercises
• A group project. Groups will be formed and topics assigned early in the class. The last day of the class (both meetings) will be devoted to student presentations.

POLI8017: Workshop in Public Affairs – Collective Action and Governance

The problem of collective action is a canonical problem in public administration and governance more generally.  What levers do governments have to encourage or discourage this behavior? 

The course is built around the work of Nobel Laureates Elinor Ostrom, James Buchanan, and, most recently Joel Mokyr, who dedicated their lives to try and provide an answer to the simple and yet overwhelming question of the political economy of simple elements of public administration and governance under the long shadow of the biggest challenge of them all: the problem of collective action.

We will focus on microfoundations, assumptions about how individuals make decisions and the setting in which they decide, decision processes and decision contexts, as well as insights from the study of real-world interactions.  Scholars across disciplines have developed a wide range of approaches to understanding how governance and public administration address the challenge of collective action, how they often fail to do so, and what we can do about it. 

Your grade will be based on an equal weighting of three factors:

• Short (100-150 words) responses to questions distributed in advance of class.  These responses must be submitted prior to class. There will be no papers on the first day of classes (meetings 1 and 2). 
• Your participation in class discussion and exercises
• A group project. Groups will be formed and topics assigned early in the class. The last day of the class (both meetings) will be devoted to student presentations.