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Power Dependence and Democratic Transition: The Case of Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Kuan Hsin-chi
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Extract

Hong Kong is a British colony. It will become, in 1997, a Special Administrative Region under the authority of the Central People's Government of China, i.e. a local government within a unitary state. Thus, Hong Kong is and will remain a dependent polity. In a situation of power dependence, the choice of the rulers of the hegemonic country who set the rules of the game is crucial for political change in the dominated polity.

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 128 , December 1991 , pp. 774 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1991

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References

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2. In a social indicator survey conducted by the author and Lau Siu-kai in 1988, respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement that Hong Kong should not be returned to China but go independent. 2.9 and 44.3% strongly agreed and agreed, while 6.0 and 46.9% strongly disagreed and disagreed. See Siu-kai, Lau and Hsin-chi, Kuan, Social Indicators Survey 1988, Module D Data Book (Hong Kong: Centre for Hong Kong Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988), p. 39Google Scholar.

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28. These measures include the recruitment of the chief executive by an election committee, the limits to the proportion of popularly and direct elected seats in the Legislative Council, and the separate procedures of voting on government versus private bills. Executive stability can to a large extent be ensured by making the tenure of the chief executive divorced from the confidence of the legislature.

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