Political Development in Hong Kong
Political Development in Hong Kong: State, Political Society, and Civil Society
Ma Ngok
Copyright Date: 2007
Published by: Hong Kong University Press
Pages: 318
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xwcx7
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Political Development in Hong Kong
Book Description:

This book reviews the political development of Hong Kong before and after 1997, in particular the evolution of state-society relations in the last two decades, to analyze the slow development of democracy and governance in Hong Kong after 1997. This book is a most comprehensive analysis of the multi-faceted changes in Hong Kong in the last 20 years. The scope of changes analyzed included state functions and institutions, political changes such as party development and development of the Legislative Council, and social changes such as social movements, civil liberties, etc. It helps the reader understand the crisis of governance of Hong Kong after 1997, and the difficulty of democratic development in Hong Kong over the years. The book covers: changing state institutions in Hong Kong in the last few decades; party development in Hong Kong; the changing role and function of the legislature in Hong Kong; the evolution of social movement and movement organizational forms; media freedom, civil liberties, and the role of civil society; and theoretical discussions concerning governance problems and state-society relations in Hong Kong. Special emphasis is placed on how these changes brought about a new state-society relation, which in turn brought governance difficulties after 1997.

eISBN: 978-988-8052-66-0
Subjects: Political Science
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
  3. Preface
    Preface (pp. vii-viii)
  4. Acronyms and Abbreviations
    Acronyms and Abbreviations (pp. ix-xii)
  5. CHAPTER ONE Political Development in Hong Kong
    CHAPTER ONE Political Development in Hong Kong (pp. 1-14)

    THIS BOOK IS A STUDY on the political development of Hong Kong in the last two decades, with special emphasis on the development after the sovereignty handover in 1997. To many Hong Kong people, the performance of the Hong Kong government went downhill after Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China after 1997. Many local scholars described post-1997 Hong Kong as being in a state of crisis (Chan and So, 2002; Lau, 2002a); some went as far as to argue that Hong Kong has gone on the road of political decay (Lo, 2001). The 500,000-people demonstration on...

  6. PART A The State
    • CHAPTER TWO The Nature of the Colonial State
      CHAPTER TWO The Nature of the Colonial State (pp. 17-32)

      THERE HAVE BEEN CONTRASTING IMAGES about the nature of the colonial state, the most well-known being Hong Kong as a minimalist laissez-faire state. Scholars differed on the extent to which the Hong Kong state was really non-interventionist, but it was clear that social and political changes since the 1980s had rendered the “minimalist state” formulation inadequate for understanding the current Hong Kong state. This chapter will first have a review of the contrasting images of the colonial state. It will then discuss the changes since the 1980s that had led to changes to the state and its relations with society...

    • CHAPTER THREE Passages to the Post-Colonial State
      CHAPTER THREE Passages to the Post-Colonial State (pp. 33-56)

      THE POLITICAL TRANSITION THAT STARTED in 1984 led to a fundamental change in the political landscape of Hong Kong. On the one hand, the Chinese government tried to build its corps of post-1997 ruling elites by a united front strategy. On the other hand, gradual democratization enabled elected representatives and grassroots political groups to challenge for public power via competitive elections. In between, the business elites, used to being dominant in the pre-1985 regime, tried very hard to maintain their position in the post-1997 system by entering into a conservative partnership with the Chinese government.

      On top of the political...

    • CHAPTER FOUR The Post-Colonial State
      CHAPTER FOUR The Post-Colonial State (pp. 57-92)

      DEVELOPMENTS IN Hong Kong after 1997 showed that an autocratic state is not necessarily strong, as the institutional logic of executive dominance enshrined in the Basic Law has outlived its usefulness in the post-colonial era. While the Basic Law stipulates an executive-dominant system which puts most of the policy-making powers in the hands of the chief executive (CE) and the executive branch, there are a lot of internal and external constraints to this power. The lack of a governing party, low cohesion within the governing elite, and fragmented state institutional powers result in weakened state capacity and fragmentation of political...

  7. PART B Political Society and Political Development
    • [PART B Introduction]
      [PART B Introduction] (pp. 93-96)

      PART B OF THIS BOOK discusses the development of the political society in Hong Kong, with emphasis on the changes and development after 1997. Stepan (1988, p. 4) defined political society in a democratizing setting as “the arena in which the polity arranges itself for political contestation to gain control over public power and the state apparatus.” Weigle saw the political society as both a part of civil society and a part of the state. It includes that part of civil society that attempts to influence state power through political organizations (e.g., voters’ associations, political parties), those institutions in which...

    • CHAPTER FIVE The Legislature
      CHAPTER FIVE The Legislature (pp. 97-134)

      THIS CHAPTER REVIEWS THE EVOLUTION of the functions of Hong Kong’s legislature since the early colonial era, in terms of channeling public opinion, cleavage formation, policy influence, control and oversight, and interest representation. The Legislative Council was an arena of selective co-option before the advent of elections. The inclusion of popularly elected members brought institutional changes and enhanced the interest representation function and policy influence of Legco. The years 1995–97 marked the zenith of Legco’s influence in terms of oversight, policy influence and cleavage formation, playing a certain interest aggregation role in a growing political society. However, institutional and...

    • CHAPTER SIX Political Parties
      CHAPTER SIX Political Parties (pp. 135-158)

      THE DWARFING OF THE Hong Kong legislature after 1997 went hand in hand with the retrogression of development of political parties. While political parties had acquired a more important role in the Hong Kong polity in 1991–97, their continual development was thwarted by a wide variety of factors after 1997. By 2004, political parties in Hong Kong made up a negligible proportion of the population¹ and had weak resources and mobilization power. Public opinion polls showed that political parties as a political institution suffered from low public legitimacy after 1997.

      Modern democracy is unthinkable without parties (Schattschneider, 1942). Political...

  8. PART C Civil Society and Democratization
    • [PART C Introduction]
      [PART C Introduction] (pp. 159-162)

      CIVIL SOCIETY IS ONE OF the most popular concepts in contemporary social science. The study of civil society, and its relations with democratic development, has been in vogue in the past few decades. Historically the struggle for civil society in Europe went hand in hand with the struggle for a market economy, from medieval times continuing through to the recent struggles in Eastern Europe. Both civil society and market economy were seen as vital public spheres that can be autonomous from the state, constraining state power and protecting civilian autonomy, and thus vital for democratic society (see Arato, 1981, Keane,...

    • CHAPTER SEVEN Encroachments on Civil Society
      CHAPTER SEVEN Encroachments on Civil Society (pp. 163-198)

      IF AN AUTONOMOUS AND STRONG civil society can check the arbitrary power of an authoritarian state, in the process of which increasing the likelihood of changing an authoritarian regime, it is inconceivable that the non-democratic governments will not do something against it. It is common for autocrats to restrict civil liberties, deny space for public discussions, and harness media freedom. In this light we should expect, with the Central Government and the SAR government unwilling to grant full democracy in the short to medium term, the SAR state would devise means to limit the growth and activities of the civil...

    • CHAPTER EIGHT Civil Society in Self-Defense
      CHAPTER EIGHT Civil Society in Self-Defense (pp. 199-220)

      THIS CHAPTER TRIES TO SOLVE the puzzle laid out in the introductory section of Part C, namely why the vibrant civil society in Hong Kong has not been able to bring about democracy. An obvious explanation is of course the China factor; that the power imbalance between the party-state of the PRC and Hong Kong civil society was too great to overcome, that facing the omnipotent Chinese party-state, the civil society in Hong Kong was not strong enough to effect political change. Chapter Seven also provided part of the explanation: the civil society in Hong Kong was always under encroachment...

    • CHAPTER NINE An Institutionalist’s Conclusion
      CHAPTER NINE An Institutionalist’s Conclusion (pp. 221-232)

      THIS BOOK STARTED WITH THE ambitious goal of explaining the governing crisis of the SAR and the lack of democratic progress in Hong Kong after 1997. This concluding chapter analyzes the plight of SAR governance and of democratic development in Hong Kong, by combining an institutional analysis of SAR politics and discussion of state-society relations in Hong Kong.

      Part A pointed to the fragmented state institutions of the SAR as a major obstacle in delivering good governance after 1997. The Central Government was reluctant to use the Communist Party apparat in Hong Kong to govern the SAR, and the united...

  9. APPENDIX 1 Major Quangos Established since the 1980s
    APPENDIX 1 Major Quangos Established since the 1980s (pp. 233-245)
  10. APPENDIX 2 Major Judicial Review Cases, 2002–05
    APPENDIX 2 Major Judicial Review Cases, 2002–05 (pp. 246-247)
  11. Appendix 3 Examples of Criticisms from the Audit Commission, 1998–2003
    Appendix 3 Examples of Criticisms from the Audit Commission, 1998–2003 (pp. 248-250)
  12. APPENDIX 4 Major Controversial Events Related to Civil Liberties after 1997
    APPENDIX 4 Major Controversial Events Related to Civil Liberties after 1997 (pp. 251-256)
  13. APPENDIX 5 Coalitions, United Fronts, and Alliances, 1998–2004
    APPENDIX 5 Coalitions, United Fronts, and Alliances, 1998–2004 (pp. 257-268)
  14. Notes
    Notes (pp. 269-280)
  15. Bibliography
    Bibliography (pp. 281-300)
  16. Index
    Index (pp. 301-306)
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