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Hong Kong's postwar economic "miracle" has been sustained by a minimally integrated social-political system, the two constituent parts of which are a laissez-faire bureaucracy and a "self-sufficient," atomistic Chinese society. Until recently, this system has operated to keep politically salient issues to a manageable minimum. Secular, asymmetrical changes, however, have opened up cracks in the system; their disruptive effects have become increasingly visible. Because of its overly rapid economic growth, the organizational fabric of the Chinese society has worn away, making it more dependent on the government for need satisfaction. Together with the administrative imperatives befitting a complex industrial society, this dependence furthers the emergence of a professionalized and expanded bureaucracy. The problem of linkage between the government and the Chinese society is aggravated by the inadequacy of existing intermediary devices. As a result, a new style of politics is emerging in Hong Kong, reflecting its troubled structural conditions.

Based on three large-scale sample surveys in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, this study purports to delineate the relations between traditional political orientations and political participation. It is found that among all three societies, Chinese in the Mainland are most traditional. In general, the negative impact of traditional political orientations on political participation is small once education is controlled for. In particular, political participation in Hong Kong is more individually based, facilitated primarily by modernization pressures. In Taiwan, institutional factors such as democracy, elections and civic associations are paramount and are buttressed by a rising white-collar class. In Mainland China, traditional political orientations have a positive impact on participation and this impact stays much the same even after controlling for education. The positive impact can be explained by institutional interference whereby traditional political orientations exert influence differently on different modes of participation: negative on adversary and protest activities but positive on voting, campaign and appeal activities. The findings of this paper imply that the argument that Confucian political culture makes a democratic China impossible is incomplete and will become irrelevant. (J Contemp China/DÜI)

Trotz prinzipiell günstiger Bedingungen in der Hongkonger Gesellschaft (ausreichende sozio-ökonomische Bedingungen, Ansätze pluralistischer institutioneller Basis) ist der Grad der Demokratisierung in der Kronkolonie gering. Eine Befragung einer repräsentativen Gruppe chinesischer Hongkonger 1992 verweist auf ein nur partielles und begrenztes Demokratieverständnis in der Bevölkerung. Partizipation des einzelnen Bürgers wird nicht unbedingt als notwendiges Kriterium funktionierender Demokratie gesehen, allgemeine Volkswahlen gelten bei der Mehheit der Befragten nicht als per se notwendig. Ein (elitäres) repräsentatives System - gemäß dem status quo - soll v.a. konsultativ in bezug auf den Demos, effizient und kontrollierbar sein. Dem Bürger sollte es v.a. materielle Wohlstandsmehrung und Stabilität bescheren. Schrittweise Demokratisierung wird schnellen Reformen vorgezogen. (FUB/APCh-Emn)

The 1985 District Board Elections were the first electoral exercise held in Hong Kong after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Agreement, which stipulated the restoration of Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. The 1997 issue was instrumental in fostering the emergence of a large number of quasipolitical groups and politicizing many more socio-economic groups. The 1985 elections hence provide an opportunity to assess the extent of change in the political attitude and behavior of the Hong Kong people and of the realignment of political forces on local and societal levels. The major findings of the paper are that there were limited mobilizational effects arising from the 1997 issue and that the participant groups and individuals in the elections failed to articulate the issue and its multiple ramifications in their electoral appeals, thus testifying to the serious limits to political restructuring in a dependent polity if it is based primarily on endogenous factors. (Internat. Pol. Science Assoc.)