Zhenze Huang Receives Don C. Piper Award for Research on Elite Co-optation in Hong Kong
For Zhenze Huang, receiving the Department of Government and Politics’ Don C. Piper Award was especially meaningful because it recognized a project that grew out of his broader intellectual interests in political institutions, elite behavior and East Asian politics.
“I am very grateful for this recognition,” Zhenze said. “In comparative politics, I am particularly interested in how political elites behave within political institutions and how institutional settings shape their choices. Much of my work explores these questions in the context of China and East Asia. It is especially meaningful to see a project that I have enjoyed developing receive this kind of recognition.”
Zhenze received the AY 2025–26 award for Does Elite Co-optation Buy Compliance? Evidence from Roll-Call Voting in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The Don C. Piper Award recognizes the best paper written by a GVPT graduate student.
Zhenze studies the intersection of domestic politics and foreign policy in China and East Asia. His research also explores international conflict, authoritarian institutions, and legislative politics.
His award-winning paper asks a central question: Under what conditions does the political incorporation of elites translate into legislative support? Governments may seek to build political coalitions by providing elites with public appointments, donations, or other co-optative benefits. Yet Zhenze wanted to understand whether these forms of incorporation consistently translate into support in the legislature, particularly during periods of heightened political contestation.
“Legislatures can serve as important institutions for incorporating political elites and structuring their relationships with the government,” Zhenze said. “But institutional inclusion does not necessarily produce consistent political cooperation.”
Zhenze explores that question through Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. Following Hong Kong’s handover of 1997, PRC's central authorities and the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region incorporated political, professional and business elites through a range of representative and advisory bodies.
Hong Kong’s political and institutional environment changed substantially during the period covered by the study. Using an original dataset of Hong Kong lawmakers and their votes between 2000 and 2020, Zhenze examined whether legislators who received government-linked benefits—including public appointments, honorary titles and political donations—were more likely to support government-sponsored legislation.
He found that co-optative benefits produced only limited and conditional compliance. While certain benefits were associated with greater support for the government, their effectiveness varied across different types of legislative issues and weakened during major periods of key political events.
These findings suggest that co-optation was more effective at reinforcing existing political relationships than at securing durable support from lawmakers over time. Institutional incorporation, in other words, did not guarantee consistent legislative cooperation.
Although the paper centers on Hong Kong, its broader implications extend to the comparative study of legislature and elite behavior. By examining lawmakers’ actual voting behavior, the project shows that understanding political incorporation requires looking not only at how institutions are designed, but also at how elites behave after entering them.
Zhenze credits his advisors, Professor Scott Kastner and Professor Margaret Pearson, with providing invaluable intellectual guidance throughout the project. He also expressed his appreciation to the award selection committee, colleagues, workshop participants and conference discussants whose comments helped him develop and strengthen the paper.
The manuscript is currently under revise-and-resubmit from a major journal. As Zhenze continues refining the project, he plans to further investigate how political identity, institutional incentives and lawmakers’ socioeconomic backgrounds shape legislative behavior.
For Zhenze, the Don C. Piper Award is both an honor and an encouragement to continue pursuing the research questions that first drew him to political science.
“One of the things I value most about academic research is the opportunity to keep pursuing important questions that genuinely interest me,” he said. “This project has allowed me to bring together several of my long-standing interests in comparative politics, political institutions and China. I am very grateful that the department recognized the work, and I look forward to continuing to develop this research agenda.”
Published on Wed, 09/16/2026 - 12:05