Professions, Expertise &
Democratic Backsliding
Politicizing Expert Voices Amid Democratic Decline:
Professional Associations and the Public Sphere in Post-1997 Hong Kong
Under Review
Pamela P Tsui, Ottica Chong, and Sida Liu
When democratic conditions change, expert voices are politicized in the public sphere. This article examines how professional associations in Hong Kong navigated three major legal and political reform controversies during the city’s two-decade democratic decline following the 1997 handover. We develop a framework that analyzes how different combinations of technical and normative authority shaped associations’ strategies and reception across two arenas: the legislative sphere and the civic sphere. The findings show how professional legitimacy deteriorates through the erosion of boundaries between expert and political voices.
Sida Liu, Anson Au, and Pamela P Tsui (2024)
This article investigates the career trajectories of Hong Kong solicitors during two historical turning points, specifically 1994–1997 and 2018–2021, when hundreds of lawyers left private practice to pursue alternative career options such as business and finance, government and politics, or relocation to other countries.
