Hong Kong From Britain to China: Political Cleavages, Electoral Dynamics and Institutional Changes by Li Pang-Kwong

Hong Kong From Britain to China: Political Cleavages, Electoral Dynamics and Institutional Changes by Li Pang-Kwong

Author:Li Pang-Kwong [Pang-Kwong, Li]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351792059
Google: 9sVKDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 38506597
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-02-05T00:00:00+00:00


(b) that a person's claim to belong to that category should be relatively easy to establish and check. (Hong Kong Government, 1965g:3)

After the expansion of the franchise, it was estimated to have a 200,000 potential electorate Only 13% (N=26,275) and 17% (N=34,392) of the potential electorate went to register in 1967 and 1969, respectively. Furthermore, as indicated in Table 5.1, the electorate in 1952 only amounted to 9,000 and increased very slowly to about 34,000 in 1981, representing less than 1% of the population.

After studying electoral participation in the UrbCo elections, one observer suggested that the low rate of participation was, in some senses, quasi-rational and concluded that:

With politics separated from economics, the pay-off schedule of the political "game" is such that it remains a pastime, a hobby for those who have the time, energy, and inclination to engage in it. Its rewards may be gratifying to some, but they are modest and non-material. It is politics without power, a sanitized and safety-inspected simulacrum of the real thing, completely divorced from the dynamism of Hong Kong's economy. (Hoadley, 1973:616)

Another scholar (Wong, 1970-71:20) attributed the political indifference of the Hong Kong people not to the cultural factor, but to the electoral system adopted:

. . . the political indifference of the local Chinese cannot be understood as some residue of a traditional preference for a paternalistic form of government. Instead I have argued that the political apathy of the local population must be explained within the context of the present [1970] electoral system, i.e. the part the local people are allowed to play in the political scene.

Table 5.1 The Electorate of the UrbCo and Population of Hong Kong, 1952-81



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