Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Changing Government–Business Relations and the Governance of Hong Kong

  • Chapter
Hong Kong in Transition

Abstract

The dominance of business interests in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government is obvious. Even before the formal inauguration of the HKSAR, sceptics were quick to point out that ‘Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong’ was becoming ‘business people governing Hong Kong’. Without doubt, the voice of business has been loud during the entire transition period: from the drafting of the Basic Law, the setting up of the Preliminary Working Committee, the Preparatory Committee and the Selection Committee, to the selection of a shipping magnate as the Chief Executive and the creation of a Provisional Legislative Council, business interests have been well represented. This leads some observers to suggest that the supposed new era of rule is, in fact, a continuation/reproduction of the ‘colonial pact’: a strategy of wooing the business élite by co-opting their representatives into policy making and law making (Beja 1997).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Beja, J. P. 1997 ‘Hong Kong Two Months Before the Handover: One Territory, Two Systems?. China News Analysis 15 April: 3–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choi, C. 1998 Insight into the Hong Kong Electoral System. Hong Kong: Ming Pao Publishing Co. (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisswell, C. N. 1991 The Taipans: Hong Kong’s Merchant Princes. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, S. N. G. 1977 ‘One Brand of Politics Rekindled’. Hong Kong Law Journal, 7(1): 44–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endacott, G. B. 1964a A History of Hong Kong, 2nd edn. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endacott, G. B. (ed.) 1964b An Eastern Entrepôt: A Collection of Documents Illustrating the History of Hong Kong. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haggard, S. 1990 Pathways from the Periphery: The Politics of Growth in the Newly Industrializing Countries. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, P. 1988 Hong Kong: A Study in Bureaucracy and Politics. Hong Kong: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce 1949 Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce Report. Hong Kong: Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, R. 1976 Borrowed Place, Borrowed Time: Hong Kong and Its Many Faces. London: André Deutsch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kavanagh, D. and Morris, P. 1989 Consensus Politics from Attlee to Thatcher. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, A. Y. 1981 ‘Administrative Absorption of Politics in Hong Kong: Emphasis on the Grass Roots Level’, in King, A. Y., Lee, R. P. L. (eds) Social Life and Development in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krueger, A. O. 1974 ‘The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking Society’. American Economic Review, 64 (June): 291–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuan, H. 1997 ‘Hong Kong after the Handover’. China News Analysis 1–15, August: 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lau, S. 1982 Society and Politics in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lau, S., Kuan, H. 1988 The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lau, S., Kuan, H. 1990 ‘Public Attitude Toward Laissez Faire in Hong Kong’. Asian Survey, 30(8): 766–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau, S., Kuan, H., Wan, P. 1991 ‘Political Attitudes’, in Lau, S., Lee, M., Wan, P., Wong, S. (eds) Indicators of Social Development: Hong Kong 1988. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung, B. K. P. 1990 ‘Power and Politics: A Critical Analysis’, in Leung, B. K. P. (ed.) Social Issues in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindblom, C. E. 1977 Politics and Markets: The World’s Political-Economic Systems. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Longstreth, F. 1979 ‘The City, Industry and the State’, in Crouch, C. (ed.) State and Economy in Contemporary Capitalism. London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miners, N. J. 1981 The Government and Politics of Hong Kong, 3rd edn, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngo, T. 1997a ‘Hong Kong under Colonial Rule: An Introduction’. China Information, 12(1/2): 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ngo, T. 1997b ‘The Legend of a Colony: Political Rule and Historiography in Hong Kong’. China Information, 12(1/2): 135–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ngo, T. 1997c ‘Hong kong onder Chinees Bestuur: Het Dilemma van Verandering en Continuïteit’. Internationale Spectator, 51(5): 274–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngo, T. 1997d Global Market, Regional Networks, and State Intervention in the East Asian Cases. Paper presented to the International Colloquium on ‘Globalisation, the Formation of Economic Blocs, Nation States, and Regional Response’, Utrecht, 12–13 June.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngo, T. (forthcoming) ‘Social Values and Consensual Politics in Hong Kong’, in Antlov, H., Ngo, T. (eds), The Cultural Construction of Politics in Asia. London: Curzon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Donnell, G. 1979 ‘Tensions in the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State and the Question of Democracy’, in Collier, D. (ed.), The New Authoritarianism in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Donnell, G., Schmitter, P. C. 1986 Transition from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M. 1982 The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rear, J. 1971 ‘One Brand of Politics’, in Hopkins, K. (ed.) Hong Kong: The Industrial Colony. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, I. 1989 Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • So, A. Y. 1997 ‘Hong Kong’s Embattled Democracy: Perspectives from East Asian NIEs’. Issues and Studies, 33(8): 63–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stinchcombe, L. A. 1968 Constructing Social Theories. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wildavsky, A. 1978 ‘Changing Forward Versus Changing Back’. Yale Law Journal, 88: 217–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, G. 1991 ‘Business Groups in a Dynamic Environment: Hong Kong 1976–1986’, in Hamilton, G. (ed.) Business Networks and Economic Development in East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, S. 1988 Emigrant Entrepreneurs: Shanghai Industrialists in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, S. 1994 ‘Business and Politics in Hong Kong During the Transition’, in Leung, B. V. P., Wong, T. Y. C. (eds) 25 Years of Social and Economic Development in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, T. W. P., Lui, T. 1992 ‘From One Brand of Politics to One Brand of Political Culture’. Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies Occasional Paper no. 10. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu, J. 1993 Xu Jiatun’s Memoir of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: United Press (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Yahuda, M. 1996 Hong Kong: China’s Challenge. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yee, H. L. B., Ngo, T. 1993 The Political Culture of the Macau Chinese. Macau: Macau Foundation (in Chinese).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Tak-Wing Ngo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK

    Robert Ash (Chiang Chin-kuo Professor of Taiwan Studies) (Chiang Chin-kuo Professor of Taiwan Studies)

  2. Centre for Studies in Democratisation, University of Warwick, UK

    Peter Ferdinand (Director) (Director)

  3. Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hull, UK

    Brian Hook (Emeritus Leverhulme Fellow, Visiting Professor, Honorary Research Fellow) (Emeritus Leverhulme Fellow, Visiting Professor, Honorary Research Fellow)

  4. Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Brian Hook (Emeritus Leverhulme Fellow, Visiting Professor, Honorary Research Fellow) (Emeritus Leverhulme Fellow, Visiting Professor, Honorary Research Fellow)

  5. China Business and Policy Unit, University of Keele, China

    Robin Porter (Director) (Director)

Copyright information

© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ngo, TW. (2000). Changing Government–Business Relations and the Governance of Hong Kong. In: Ash, R., Ferdinand, P., Hook, B., Porter, R. (eds) Hong Kong in Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333977262_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation