Abstract
The expansion phase of political parties in Hong Kong signalled the growth of the local democracy movement spearheaded by middle-class liberals. Prior to the 1980s, no real democracy movement emerged in Hong Kong. The pressure groups which mushroomed in the late 1970s influenced the government not on institutional reform but on such social issues as housing and corruption. Strictly speaking, the democracy movement began in 1984 when the Green Paper raised the political awareness of societal elites. While the controversy over Legco’s direct elections in 1988 spurred the liberals to strive for democratisation, the Tiananmen incident politicised the democrats further by prompting them to form political parties which aimed at winning elections at the district, municipal and territory levels.
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Notes
See Janet L. Scott, ‘Local-Level Election Behaviour in an Urban Area’, Occasional paper no. 6, Centre for Hong Kong Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, January 1985, p. 35.
For a discussion of the 1991 Legco elections, see Rowena Kwok, Joan Leung, and Ian Scott, eds., Votes Without Power: The Hong Kong Legislative Council Elections 1991 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1992).
Kuan Hsin-chi and Lau Siu-kai, ‘Hong Kong’s Search for a Consensus: Barriers and Prospects’, in Chiu Hungdah, ed., The Future of Hong Kong (New York: Quorum Books, 1987), pp. 99–100.
Lau Siu-kai, ‘Institutions Without Leaders: The Hong Kong Chinese View of Political Leadership’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 63, no. 2 (Summer 1990), p. 196.
Lau, ‘Decolonisation Without Independence: The Unfinished Political Reforms of the Hong Kong Government’, Occasional paper no. 19, Centre for Hong Kong Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (May 1987), p. 13.
Bernard Luk, ‘Education’, in Tsim and Luk, eds., The Other Hong Kong Report (1989), p. 174.
Wong Hin Wah, ‘A Study of Hong Kong Secondary School Civic Education Curriculum Development (1984–1986)’, Doctor of Education thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1988, pp. 170–173.
Joan Y. H. Leung, ‘Functional Representation in Hong Kong: Institutionalisation and Legitimisation of the Business and Professional Elites’, Asian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 12, no. 2 (December 1990), p. 170.
Ian Scott, ‘Functional Constituencies and Representation’, paper presented at the seminar ‘Democracy and Political Development: Hong Kong Characteristics’, organised by the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation, May 19, 1991, p. 2.
Michael Meadowcroft and Patrick Bradley, Electoral Reform Society: Delegation to Hong Kong Report, 27 January 1991 to February 1991 (London: The Electoral Reform Society, 1991), paragraph 5.7.
Michael M. Y. Suen, ‘The Hong Kong Electoral System and its Future Development’, paper presented at the seminar organized by the Democratic Foundation, May 19, 1991, p. 2.
See Lau Siu-kai and Kuan Hsin-chi, The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1988), p. 190 and Chapter 3.
Also see Lau Siu-kai, Lee Ming-kwan, Wan Po-san, and Wong Siu-lun, eds., Indicators of Social Development: The Hong Kong 1988 (Hong Kong: Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991), Chapter 8.
For a critique of Lau and Kuan’s cultural approach, see Stephen Davies (Review Article), ‘The Attitude of the Right Side is that of Calm Unbelief’, Asian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 11, no. 1 (June 1989), pp. 126–132.
See Louie Kin-shuen and Shum Kwok-cheung, eds., A Collection of Materials on Hong Kong Elections 1982–1994 (in Chinese) (Hong Kong: The Institute for Hong Kong and Asia Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994), p. 178. Also see Boundary and Election Commission: Report on the 1995 Legislative Council General Election, op. cit., p. 129.
For the categories of white-collar clerical and blue-collar manual workers, I borrow from Jack Arn, ‘Public-Sector Unions’, in Ian Scott and John Burns, eds., The Hong Kong Civil Service: Personnel Policies and Practices (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 236.
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© 1997 Lo Shiu-hing
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Lo, Sh. (1997). Strength and Weaknesses of the Democracy Movement: Limits to the ‘Explosion of Civil Society’. In: The Politics of Democratization in Hong Kong. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25467-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25467-5_6
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