Grassroots protest and policy change in hong kong

Abstract

This paper examines the public protest by grassroots organizations which, in part, led to the withdrawal of the British colonial government’s privatization plan on health care finances in its final years of rule in Hong Kong, The authors argue that grassroots protest has to direct its efforts in the articulation of an ideological climate in favor of policy change. This is because grassroots organizations are often few in number and lack formal political power; they have to rely upon external resources to mobilize for policy change. Although a direct and causal relationship between the grassroots protest and the withdrawal of the government's privatization plan could not be firmly established, it is argued that the change of the debate from one about an administrative issue of health care finances to one about moral justice set the context for the eventual policy change.