Haranguing Hong Kong

The Economic Future of Hong Kong, by Mir on Mushkat. Lynne Rienner, Publishers, Boulder and London/Hong Kong University Press, 1990. xii+171 pp. £16.50. ISBN 1–555–87197–6.

City on the Rocks: Hong Kong's Uncertain Future, by Kevin Rqfferty. Viking, London, 1989. x + 518 pp., 16 pp. plates. £15.95. ISBN0–670–80205–0.

Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong, by Ian Scott. C. Hurst, London, 1990. xv + 480 pp. £27.50. ISBN 1–850650–527.

Kowtow! After Tiananmen Square: A Plea on Behalf of Hong Kong, by William Shawcross. Chatto CounterBlasts No. 6. Chatto and Windus, London, 1989. 57 pp. £2.99. ISBN 0–7011–3628–6.

Democracy Shelved: Great Britain, China, and Attempts at Constitutional Reform in Hong Kong, 1945–1952, by Steve Yui‐Sang Tsang. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1988. xxxiv + 254 pp. £18.50. ISBN 0–19–584175–1.

Hong Kong! Hong Kong!, by Dick Wilson. Unwin Hyman, London, 1990. 284 pp. £15.99. ISBN 0–04–440622.     

Hong Kong between East and West

The Hong Kong Basic Law: Blueprint for ‘Stability and Prosperity’ under Chinese Sovereignty, edited by Ming K. Chan and David J. Clark. (Hong Kong Becoming China Series) M. E. Sharpe, New York, 1991. xv + 311 pp. $45. ISBN 0–87332–835–3.

The China‐Hong Kong Connection: The Key to China's Open‐Door Policy, by Yun‐Wing Sung. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991. xiv + 183 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0–521–38245–9.

The Making of Hong Kong Society: Three Studies of Class Formation in Early Hong Kong, by W. K. Chan. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. viii + 251 pp. £32.50. ISBN 0–19–827320–7.     

The PLA and regionalism in Hong Kong

This article examines the linkages between changes in international capital movements and currency values on the one hand and Asian regionalism on the other. It argues that economic ties within Asia in the late 1980s and early 1990s can be traced primarily to the increasing values of currencies in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Foreign-direct investments from companies in these countries increased throughout the Asian region. Intra-regional trade grew rapidly as well. Still, by the turn of the century, in contrast to regionalism in Europe, that in Asia remained deeply institutionalized and far less responsive to any central direction from potential leaders such as Japan.     

港澳华文教育发展研究

香港、澳门自身的特性决定了开展和扩大华文教育的重要性。当前港澳华文教育的发展存在教育重视程度不足、多语言之间关系复杂、华文教育推广战略缺失、教学语言过渡和简繁汉字更替等问题。可通过增强港澳居民的民族认同感、加强华语教师的培训工作、规范学校教学语言、宣传和推广简化字、制定华文教育推广战略等手段,促进港澳华文教育事业的发展。     

香港廉政公署研究

廉政公署透过“三管齐下”的反贪策略,即调查、防贪和教育的方式,成功地为香港缔造出一个比较廉洁的社会,亦令香港于国际间赢得高度的评价。以廉政公署成立前后香港社会之分析为视角,透视廉署之结构、功能与特点,借鉴其成功的反贪经验,对我们当前的廉政建设具有重要的意义。     

香港工会联合会:现状与挑战

一、工联会及其组织构成1948年,香港工会联合会(以下简称工联会)成立.目前,工联会拥有两百多家下属工会组织和赞助会,会员人数在三十万左右,以蓝领劳工为主要会员,是香港工会人数众多、影响力较大的工会组织.工联会与会员的联系主要依靠文化福利活动.     

香港廉政广告的策略及其启示

香港廉政广告在建设＂廉洁香港＂过程中发挥了重要作用,是香港反腐败成功经验中的重要方面。采用文本分析法,对香港廉政公署自1975～2008年之间所投放的66则电视廉政广告进行分析,可以发现香港廉政广告在诉求对象的选择、关键诉求的设计和诉求方式的运用等三方面都有策略性安排。这些经验知识对于近年来内地反腐倡廉建设过程中廉政广告手段的运用具有积极的启发价值。     

香港警队建设的启示与思考

香港警队的职业建设在很多方面都值得我们学习借鉴,如潜移默化的价值观教育宣传、精益求精的敬业精神和高效负责的工作态度、警察安全第一的理念和切实关爱的保障措施、系统严密的内部管理机制、执行制度与监督制度执行互为一体的工作模式、警民一体的联防之策等。对此进行思考探讨,将对我们的警队建设工作大有裨益。     

Public Service Neutrality in Hong Kong: Problems and Prospects

Before 2002, Hong Kong's higher civil servants were required to play the dual role of quasi-ministers and civil servants. In such a context, can we make sense of the claim that Hong Kong's civil service has all along been politically neutral? What role has neutrality played in the governance of Hong Kong? Informed by Kernaghan's model of political neutrality and Oakeshott's idea of civil association, this article argues that the public service should not be regarded solely as an effective instrument of the government in power. In conclusion, this article proposes some institutional measures to strengthen the neutrality of the public service in Hong Kong and argues that properly understanding this will help prevent excessive or illegitimate partisan political power.     

Coordinating the Government Bureaucracy in Hong Kong: An Institutional Analysis

The change in sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997 has brought about an interesting puzzle: despite a high degree of institutional continuity, the Hong Kong bureaucracy that was considered highly efficient during the colonial era has appeared to turn into an inept administrative structure generating blunder after blunder. The bureaucracy seems to face greater difficulties in horizontal coordination under the new governance, and has lost the ability to produce coherent policy actions.
Drawing upon a literature of institutional analysis, this article examines the institutional design for coordination in the Hong Kong government. The article argues that the bureaucracy in Hong Kong is designed upon a logic of colonial rule. Like any institutional arrangements, the colonial administrative system has inherent coordination limitations. During the colonial era, some smoothing mechanisms were developed as the lubricant for the bureaucracy's operation, but the new governance has inevitably impinged upon some of these—making the bureaucracy more prone to coordination problems.     

Administration in a small capitalist state: The Hong Kong experience

This article is primarily concerned with the functions of bureaucracy in a minimal state and with how those functions might change in response to economic growth. It is predicated on the assumption that bureaucracy is necessary for economic growth even in those countries which seek to achieve such growth through the relatively free operation of the economy within the rubric of a capitalist state. Hong Kong is a case in point. Although it has often been taken as the epitome of the benefits which can be derived from keeping government out of the economy, the bureaucracy has in fact played a critical role in support of economic development. Aside from the functions which must be performed by any state, such as the maintenance of law and order, the administration of justice, and the provision of public works, three features of Hong Kong bureaucratic practice appear to have been important in the definition of the bureaucracy's tasks in the economic growth process. These are ‘value for money’ and the constant need to justify government expenditure; effective line implementation; and the ability to manage crises. If these constitute minimal essential requirements for such governments, they may provide useful criteria which small or micro-states, following capital growth models but not yet experiencing rapid economic development, can apply in assessing the capabilities of their own bureaucracies.     

Competitiveness concerns in Hong Kong: business fears and government incomprehension

Much of the analysis of the anti-globalization movement that has emerged in the last five years has focused on the degree to which the Internet has played a crucial role in contemporary social movements. It is commonly argued that the Internet helps create ‘virtual communities’ that use the medium to exchange information, coordinate activities, and build and extend political support. Much of the commentary on the web as a means of political mobilization for social movements stresses the degree to which the Internet compresses both space and time, accelerating the exchange of information among whomever has access to this technology. Equally important in this view is the deterritorialized nature of on-line protest and the diminution in importance of ‘place’ in current anti-globalization campaigns. Certainly this argument features prominently in analyses of the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in 1997-98 and the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle in November and December 1999. Our examination of the antiglobalization movement in Australia however leads us to a different conclusion: that while the Internet does indeed compress time, it compresses space in a different, and indeed quite variable, way. We examine the way in which Australians protested against the MAI and against the WTO meetings in Seattle, and show the differences in the nature of protest in each case. In the MAI case, the protests were well-organized and national in scope, with the Internet playing an important role in organizing the movement. By contrast, in the case of the WTO, the movement was minor and relatively marginal, with the Internet playing little discernible role in galvanizing protest. We conclude that crucial to an understanding of the differences was the considerable difference in the importance of ‘place’ in each case.