This book raises interesting questions about the process of democratization in Hong Kong. It asks why democracy has been so long delayed when Hong Kong's level of socio-economic development has become so high. It relates democratization in Hong Kong to wider studies of the democratization process elsewhere, and it supplements the received wisdom - that democracy was delayed because of colonial rule and by the opposition of China - with new thinking, for example, that its quasi-bureaucratic authoritarian political structure vested power in bureaucrats who refused to have top-down democratization; a politically weak civil society and a non-participant political culture that crippled bottom-up democratization; plus the division between pro-democratic civil society and political society.
Author(s): Ming Sing
Edition: 1
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 320
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Figures......Page 8
Tables......Page 9
Foreword......Page 13
Acknowledgments......Page 16
1 Studying Hong Kong from a comparative perspective......Page 18
2 Hong Kong ’s democratization......Page 36
3 Why was Hong Kong an anomaly before 1984?......Page 48
4 Britain ’s .rst retreat from rapid democratization and formation of the .rst pro-democratic alliance......Page 82
5 Growing vibrancy of society-led democratic reform......Page 111
6 Renewed British-led democratic reform from 1992 to 1994......Page 140
7 Decline in popular mobilization for democracy and emergence of PRC-initiated democratic reversal (1992 –7)......Page 160
8 Further democratic reversal in the post-handover period (mid-1997 –2002)......Page 180
9 Hong Kong as a rare anomaly to modernization theory......Page 208
Appendix 1 Different blueprints for the legislature of 1997......Page 241
Appendix 2 Details of interviews undertaken......Page 244
Appendix 3 Member organizations of Joint Association of People ’s Organizations (JAPOD)......Page 246
Appendix 4 Member organizations of Democracy 2000......Page 248
Appendix 5 Members of JCPDG......Page 249
Appendix 6 Sources for Table 8.10......Page 252
Notes......Page 254
Bibliography......Page 284
Index......Page 317
