Tutorial 1 relevant readings and their details PDF

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Reading 1 Political administration absorption (Ambrose Y)Asian model is different from western one Because: Enter of change that lead to nation building because  Urbanization serves to undermine primordial sentiments, loyalties and identification with sub-national entities  Helps to make the devel...

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Reading 1 Political administration absorption (Ambrose Y.King) Asian model is different from western one Because: Enter of change that lead to nation building because  Urbanization serves to undermine primordial sentiments, loyalties and identification with sub-national entities  Helps to make the development of new and larger political communities possible  Asian cities political function must be understood through relation between city and national societies  Hong Kong is a city-state; its own entity; variant from other Asian cities Hong Kong discussion 1. administrative absorption -government cooperate the political forces, often represented by elite groups, into administrative decision-making body -elite integration  governing authority is made legitimate and form a loosely integrated political community 2. non-democratic Synarchy?  joint administration shared by British rulers and non British Formal part: Three councils and civil service system Executive and legislative council Official and unofficial members Problem? Do they have influence? Who they represent? Are they men of caliber and sensitive to the needs of the community as the whole Are only socio-economic elites that order-prosperity minded and come from a very narrow sector of the population They are men of wealth! NOT mass consensual community instead it is elite-consensual polity Urban council Election but political apathy 1. traditional Confucian culture

2. the council is without power Bureaucracy plays political role Mechanism of assimilating potential discontent into the governing machinery The last thing that British government is the development of powerful oppositional forces by Chinese or other non-British leaders 1966 Riots Uprising against colonial government (by the cultural revolution in mainland Causes: - Failure of communication between government and people - Elite to elite successful but fail in elite to mass Political absorption at the grassroots level: the City District Officer Scheme CDO scheme: Accomplish a decentralization and debureaucratization of the metropolitan government Two functions: 1. facilitate communication between the governors and the governed 2. articulate the demands made known to them through the Monthly Meeting, the Study Group and Town Talk by people from different walks of life 3. Public Enquiry Service Counter -remove information gap -feedback mechanism 4. political socialization and recruitment -Channel participation of two major people- youth and local leaders -However, they were primarily recreational in nature 5. not just eyes and hears of government but also the tongues of the ppl 6. only recommendatory powers -limited in power because it cannot reverse original decision -it is rather a fair hearing in very personal way 7. aims to generate a favorable and supportive attitude and behaviour towards the government Conclusion The stability of Hong Kong in last hundred of year can be accounted for the success in administrative absorption of politics

However this Synarchical system is only open to a rather small sector of the population CDO is the solution Grass root based administrative absorption CDO 1. bridging information gap 2. but not able to reconcile the conflict arising from incompatibility of goals or interest between the governors and the governed 3. cannot replace for sound and responsive government

--Depoliticalization in HK (Ortman Stephan) British government unwillingness to broaden the arena of electoral participation 1. election entails the development of independence movement 2. government’s fear of infiltration by political groups from Chinese 3. elected representative would not necessarily perform better than nominated officials 1996 riots made government more responsive to the demands of the people CPD is political agent at district level, is not aiming at political mobilization of the populace  in fact is trying to depoliticize the political process 1967 Public Order Ordinance, which was enacted in the aftermath of the riots during that year and was primarily designed to crack down street violence Journalist and English language newspaper tends to be conservative and justify the authoritarian bureaucratic regime (south china morning posts) Weakness in independence of judiciary (Jackson Lipkin) 1. judges are paid by government budgets 2. judges are public servants 3. they are subject to establishment regulations Full democratization is impossible in Hong Kong because 1. British government cannot let hk to be independent 2. rise of professional  political absorption of politics 3. fear of communist subversion

Result: Weak real power and influence of political group in Hk

--Power dependence and democratic transition: the case of HK (Kuan) The actual process of change has been largely conditioned by the external factor of power dependence Democracy: 1. a regime by continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals 2. authoritarian regimes opens itself towards more public contestation and participation Hong Kong got three 1. freedom to form and join organizations 2. freedom of expression 3. alternative sources of information Role of middle class (internal factor) Really conducive to democracy? They may be more conservative 1. vested interest in current system 2. have the resouces and propensity to solve problems personally rather than collective action 3. no organization capable of politicizing the class or forming a class self-image External factors matter -on the condition of power dependence, favourable socio-economic conditions maybe IR 1. cultural prerequisite Civic culture: subject-parochial Low sense of political efficacy Neither prone to political action nor aggressive in challenging the incumbent authority Despite attention to political news Political culture can be intervening variable affecting likelihood of the masses being

mobilized for political action A gap between thoughts of idealism and behavioural conservatism: Always consider costs and benefits when collective action is called for and hold the pragmatic view and deeply obsessed with stability 2. attutide of elite: trust and tolerance 3. National unity as background condition Hardest struggles in a democracy are those against the birth defects of political community 4. Struggle over political reforms Hong Kong as dependent polity Serves two governments at the same time No credible bargaining strength with either of those powers 5. Grouping of preference and resources The superficial consensus about democracy as the ultimate goal of political reform reflects nothing more than a recognition of the idea of democracy Different agenda priority of different stakeholders 6. deceptive promise of democracy 7. Battle to control the initiative...