HKP Lecture 8 - Political Parties in Hong Kong PDF

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Political PartiesPolitical parties: concepts and their formation in HK Conservatism: Edmund Burke  “A body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all united” (2013:110)  This definition suggests: o (a) Political p...

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HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties Political parties: concepts and their formation in HK Conservatism: Edmund Burke  “A body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all united” (2013:110)  This definition suggests: o (a) Political parties as an organized group of people o (b) Sharing certain principles o (c) Seeks to promote public/ national interest  Any limitations in Burke’s definition? o Not specific enough, cannot distinguish parties from pressure groups Leon Epstein  “Any group, however loosely organized, that seek to elect governmental officeholders under a given label” (1967:9)  capture political power  Political party as an organization that seeks power through election  Limitation: How about parties in non-western societies? o Some countries have no election system, they don't have political parties? o Some parties seek power from violence/ revolutionist parties, e.g. CCP Joseph Schumpeter (*more accurate)  “The first and foremost aim of each political party is to prevail over the others in order to get into power or to stay in it” (1961: 279)  It aims at gaining political power, to control the personnel and government through various means (violent or peaceful means)       

An organized group of people Share certain objectives Uphold ideology Aggregate and articulate diverse interests Transform demands into concrete policy Aims at gaining political power and hence forming a government According to this definition, can political parties in Hong Kong be fully regarded as political parties? Is there something missing?

Function of political parties in democracy  “Modern democracy is party democracy” (Richard Katz, 1980: 1) o Democracy is fundamentally constituted by party politics  Almost no democracies can exist without parties o Nomination for candidates and mobilization of voters  Directing “anomic” (disoriented) participation into electoral channels (Samuel Huntingon, 1968:397) o Guide the way to vote

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Making the voters’ choice easier, “vehicles to policy-making position” (Scott Mainwaring, 1999) o Transform voter’s preference into real policy when in government office Parties can focus on different agenda at the same time (Seymour Lipset, 2000) o Pressure groups can never take over the role of political parties  Interest groups: Narrow base of support and interests  In reality, political parties fall short of such function (linking up the government and the people) Limitations: The elitist critique - “Iron law of oligarchy” (Robert Michels, 1911) o In each organization, they are doomed to be ruled by a few leaders o Always the leaders that direct the parties instead of bottom-up managment

Party Formation in HK before 1997 Before 1980  Political groups (no election before 1995 in the bureaucratic polity)  Political parties were almost non-existent in HK before the 1980s, owing to the dominance of colonial bureaucrats  Most of the social movements and groups focused on urban issues, including housing, industrial relations and education; some student groups as well  Some pushed for democratic reforms and were the closest to opposition parties 

Examples: Reform Club of Hong Kong 革新會 established in 1949, existed until mid-1980s, constitutional reform in 1946 by Governor Young for political powersharing

Early 1980s  British initiative to develop representative government  District board election in 1982  Social activists formed political groups to influence elections, such as Meeting Point 匯點 (1983)  favour Chinese sovereignty in a democratic and autonomous way, Progressive Hong Kong Society (1984), Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (1986)  Narrow focus: HK-China relations  not a political party  Participated in elections but with vague political programs Late 1980s  Successive social and political movements, e.g. against the building of the Daya Bay nuclear plant (1986) due to suspicion of safety of nuclear energy; Public Order Ordinance – outlaw the publishing of force news  hamper freedom of speech; 1989 June 4th Incident  Three major political groups (Meeting Point, Hong Kong Affairs Society, Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood) discussed a merger into a single pro-democracy party  Forefront of supporters of the Beijing democracy movement (8964)  The United Democrats of Hong Kong (1990) 支聯會

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties

How about the conservatives?  Ill prepared for the 1991 LegCo election  Opinions were divided among the conservatives  Cooperative Resource Centre (1991) formed by businessmen and the professionals to counter the rise of the democrats 李鵬飛  Later became Liberal Party in 1994  Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (1992) endorsed by the Chinese government, close relationship with Beijing Theoretical framework (1): The relationship between democratic consolidation and party institutionalization - Relationship between the party system and the actors in the party  formalized? The relationship between democratization and political parties Not only about institutionalization and electoral system, but political culture, readiness of parties in participating in elections  Step 1: The phenomenon in HK  Parties are marginalized in the political system, lack of decent support from the public, absence of political parties in most of the social movements  Step 2: Are there any roles played by political parties in democratic consolidation? How far are political parties important?  Describe the challenge of making new democracies secure, of extending their life expectancy beyond the short term, of making them immune against the threat of authoritarian regression, of building dams against eventual “reverse waves”. (Larry Diamond) o Secondary institutions (Rule of law, media, party institutions) o Democratic consolidation: new democracies able to be mature  Democratic regression: revival of authoritarianism in new democracies Level of support of political parties STEP 1 (a): LACK OF DECENT SUPPORT (hkupop, 2014)

Supportive rate: Around 50%, very low; lack of identification towards the work instead of not recognizing/knowing the political parties STEP 1 (b): MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT and finance

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Membership Democratic Party (around 700), Civic Party (around 300), DAB (around 27117) Limitation of resources Budget of DAB: HK$ 77,350,000(2010-2011), seven times more than the Democratic Party and two times than that of the Liberal Party (Wealth disparity) Most of them rely on members’ monthly allowance, no public funding No party laws in HK, government would not use public money to finance the operation of political parties

STEP 1 (c): limited role in social movements Example: Umbrella Movement  Pro-democracy parties fail to provide effective leadership, further marginalized in such movement  Since 2006 Star Ferry Movement, cease to provide leadership  They can only play a supporting role by providing goods and materials to the protesters and setting up a small number of street stalls to promote the movement  Many movement participants are very suspicious of the pro-democracy parties, which they think may “hijack” the movement   

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Survey by Ming Pao (20/10/2014): Participants were “selfmobilized” instead of by political parties 過半人自稱無政黨 兩成較支持激進派 [ 明報 20/10/2014] 本報問卷調查發現，逾半受訪者自稱並無支持任何政治組織或政黨。中文大 學新聞與傳播學院教授蘇鑰機認為這比率頗高，反映佔領運動並非由政黨動 員。「今次走出來的人，過去可能不熱中政治。」……. 蘇鑰機稱，根據本報調查結果，撇除無政黨背景後，有兩成受訪者較支持激 進民主派，包括社民連、熱血公民及人民力量，至於支持溫和民主派的人數 則明顯較少。 CUHK survey  

Most of the participants were self-mobilized “To support organizations playing a part in the occupation” as the least important reason

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties

Issue-oriented, disarticulated from political parties at large, importance is given to “self-mobilization”

Parties marginalized in the political establishment, most political appointees are independent (no party affiliation) Party politics only survive in certain areas (not in social movement or executive branch)  very limited room for them to play an important role Step (2): Democratic consolidation and Party Institutionalization  Samuel Huntington - Third Wave of Democratisation o New post-1974 democracies (relatively fresh history of democracy) o 60 countries around the world transformed from authoritarian rule toward some kind of democratic regime o Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa: from authoritarianism to democracy o Portugal: Carnation Revolution o Still continuing until now in global politics

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties First Wave: right to vote granted to White males First Reverse Wave: establishment of Fascist Party Second Wave: Allied victory in WWII Second Reverse Wave: military coup in Korea, Vietnam     

Freedom House: 2005, 123 democracies in the world Sustaining democracy is often a task as difficult as establishing it o To consolidate a democratic system is a huge difficulty Conditions: The neutralization of anti-system actors, civilian supremacy over the military, socio-economic reasons (Seymour Lipset, 1959), and so on…. Scholars also began to look into party systems in the Third Wave The relationship between democratic consolidation and party system institutionalization

Party institutionalization: definition  Party institutionalization is a process in which individual political parties that participate in elections experience an increase in organizational stability and value o Organisational stability: regularities of intra-party and inter-party relations  Regular mechanism for competition in elections?  Certain degree of regularity in internal structure? o Value-infusion: attitude of different actors in the society  Whether they give importance to the roles of political parties  A shared conception (between the people, the government and the party members) that political parties as organizations are playing indispensable roles in the political system  Differences in the criteria of measuring the concept: introducing the work of Samuel Huntington, Scott Mainwaring, Vicky Randall and Lars Savasand Samuel Huntington (1968)  “The process by which organizations and procedures acquire value and stability” (1968:12)  Criteria of assessment: Adaptability, Complexity, Autonomy, and Coherence o Adaptability: Parties ability to adapt to changes in the political environment (time is an important constraint, older parties have more skills and experience to adapt to the environment given the abundant resources) o Complexity: Number of organisational sub-units, how much level of branches of office do you have within the party(Regional, National, State level…) o Low in Hong Kong, only central level and district level o Autonomy: distinguish themselves from other actors, own distinguished interest from the government or businessmen; free from one person’s inference o Coherence: procedure for resolving disputes within the party  For instance, parties are independent, have their own values and are not be subordinate to the interests of a leader or small group of leaders

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties

Scott Mainwaring (1998): Party Systems in the Third Wave Conventional criteria of assessing party systems: o (1) the number of parties (one-party/ multi-party system) o (2) the degree of ideological polarization  The third criterion: Party institutionalization  substantial difference between established democracies and new democracies o More mature than new democracies  In an institutionalized party system, there is stability in expectation: who the main parties are and how they behave?  But the relationship between party-system institutionalization and the quality of democracy is far from linear o Institutionalization can also mean immobility (did not welcome new-comers into competition) 

Four dimensions of party-system institutionalization:  Stability: Patterns of party competition manifest regularity  Strong roots in society/ Partisanship: Linkages between the parties and citizens are more stable, with strong party identification (most of the citizens vote for the same party over time, represented by political parties instead of pressure groups)  Legitimacy: Parties are seen as a necessary and desirable democratic institution  Party organization: Parties have significant material and human resources; nonpersonalistic parties (individual leaders would not overshadow the operation of party Consequences:  Linkages between parties and their constituencies  Parties are consistent with their ideological commitment  Parties are constrained by their need to maintain the support of activities  Elites and citizens believe that these fundamental institutions of democratic politics are necessary and desirable  Parties are not subordinated to the interests of a few ambitious leaders  facilitates smooth transition  For COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS  Vicky Randall and Lars Svasand (2002):  Structural and attitudinal aspects  Internal: Relationship between parties o Continuity among party alternatives o Whether they accept each other as legitimate competitors o External: Relationship with other parts of the polity o Sufficient autonomy from the state o Activities supported by public measures o Public’s attitude towards the party system

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties

When partisanship is strong, may be less flexible (risk the level of support for vigorously changing the party policy) Party Institutionalization in HK (Jermain Lam, 2012) Criteria of measurement in the context of HK:  Partisanship: Party attachment and identification  Autonomy: Support base, funding, political background of the legislators  Stability: Internal unity of political parties  Data set from 1998-2008

Party institutionalization is very low, support for old political parties is declining  Partisanship: Growing in the legislature, but in general, the people only have half-hearted support toward the parties  Stability: Support for old political parties is fragile; these old parties do not have mechanisms to deal with challenges from the newcomers;  Disunity within the political parties; the Democratic Party suffered most from the succession problem  Autonomy: Small membership size; each party is highly dependent on a single source of funding; most of the legislators are part-time legislators - Criticism: Even if there is unity, but did not mean there is non internal mechanism to deal with disunity problem - BUT democratic party suffer from succession problem

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties Reasons attributing to the underdevelopment of parties and party cleavages 政治 光譜/ polarization in HK Relationship between party leadership and party members Underdevelopment of parties in hk Historical and cultural contexts:  Colonial legacies: to replace party politics with bureaucrats  The antipathy of Beijing and SAR government: No significant reforms in promoting party development  Political culture: Depoliticization and the refusal of collective mobilization (Lam Wai-man, 2004)  The emergence of new social movements: Increasing amount of non-institutional participation, anti-authoritarian (without clear leadership and hierarchical structure), more issue-centered o Not challenging the authority of state o Target at community improvement o No obvious hierarchical organization, no leadership o Tend to focus on single issue or limited range of issues connected to single theme Constitutional and Institutional reasons:  Section 31 of Chief Executive Election Ordinance (Cap 569): stipulates that a person elected as the Chief Executive must “publicly make a statutory declaration to the effect that he is not a member of any political party” o Disaffiliated from political party  Article 74: Restrictions on the private bills o Parties cannot transform their own agenda into real policies in policymaking in HK  Functional constituencies election weakens parties o Half of the seats in LegCo are returned by FC o Small-circle election o Only rely on personal connection instead of party connections  Abolition of the Municipal Councils (2000) o Significantly affect the promotion ladder of the second tier of political members o Decrease in financial income (rely on subscription fee and allowance of the Municipal Councillors as major source of income  undermine financial ability)  Absence of party laws: Parties are either registered under the Societies Ordinance or the Companies Ordinance o No official legal status

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties o Do not need to disclose financial information to the public (no transparency as to source of income) o Govt does not use public money to subsidise party as there is no party law Political Cleavages in HK

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“Foundation Moment” (Lau and Kwan, 2000) o Major party cleavage determined by the historical context in the 1980s and the 1990s o Attitudes to democratization and the Chinese government formed the most important cleavage  Sino-British Joint Declaration  June 4th Massacre o Weak appeals to various social-economic demands of the citizens  because they are toothless in LegCo o Especially with the parties’ limitations in policy influence

Ma Ngok, 2014  Proportional representation creates divisive effects: a total of 67 lists competed for 35 seats in 2012 LegCo election o To guarantee the pro-Beijing forces would have a fair share in the representation in the LegCo  Proliferation of small parties (in both the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing camp)  Pro-Beijing camp: Moderate conservatives and independent candidates o FTU and DAB, emergence of moderate and independent candidates e.g. Regina Ip and Leung Mei Fun o Poor coordination in 1995  Pro-democracy camp: gradual decline of the Democratic Party since 2000 (factionalism)  new pro-democratic parties emerged to fill the political void o 2006 Civic Party, LSD  Different strategies for democracy movement as a new cleavage: 2010 as the greatest split in the pro-democracy camp

HKP Lecture 8 Political Parties o Some are more radical and some are more conservative o De facto referendum in 2010 o New Alliance for Universal Suffrage: initiate a dialogue with Beijing government  Criticisms from radical wing  Young members left DP and formed new parties o Local issues VS China(Rise of localism in 2011)  The dominant cleavage remained unchanged Theoretical framework (2): Adaptation and intra-party Democracy 黨內民主  Most of the studies on Hong Kong’s political parties mainly focus on the political environment affecting party development and the electoral success of particular parties  Then how political parties in HK responded to these constraints?  Parties’ adaptations to the environment as an important process for their development Classification of political parties  Some thoughts from classics in political science  Maurice Duverger (1954):  According to target membership and reason of existence  3 types of party: o Mass Party (membership cutting across class lines, recruit as many members as possible; focus on the number) o Cadre Party (selective membership, elite-based, focus more on the quality of members, e.g. CCP: vanguards, centralized party organisation), o Personalistic Party (keep certain person in power, Argentina)  Jean Blondel (1990): o Examines internal and external aspects of party structure and leadership patterns o Intra-party democracy o External: how the party leader link up the party with the voters (charisma?) Intra-party democracy  Intra-party democratization: process, Internal transformation of a political party into a more democratic organization  Intra-party democracy: system, Party structure organized according to the principle of mass rule  A number of mechanisms may be consistent with intra-party democracy, such as candidate nomination (rank-and-file selection), leadership selection (free and open selection: whether party members can cast a vote ...