Citizen participation and administrative decentralisation in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong has been growing rapidly in terms of both its population and economy in the past two decades. Many researchers have been searching for an economic development model to explain Hong Kong’s emergence as Asia’s leading finance and business centre. At the same time, there is growing pressure for the Hong Kong Government to administer an ever-growing population of over 5.4 million.’ The traditional British administrative machinery which has operated smoothly for many years appears to be in need of updating and modification to deal with the increasing demand from the economically and educationally improved citizen. At the same time, political developments in the coming decade make urgent the need for improving the local administration so that Hong Kong can adjust smoothly when China takes over its sovereignty in 1997. There are relatively few studies done on citizen participation and district administration in Hong Kong. Some studies on grassroot organisations and citizen participation by King,2 Hayes,3 and Lau4 were related to citizen participation and the present district administration in Hong Kong. In recent studies, Leung,5 Chan6 Lau and Kuan7 try to link the two topics more closely together. Leung gives a general account of the development of community participation from the traditional Kai Fong Association, Mutual Aid Committees to District Board. Lau and Kuan analyse the results of the first District Board elections in 1982. Chan’s survey on the appointed official members of the District Board in 1981, before the election of its unofficial members, is only a