Interest Group Politics in Macau after Handover

Abstract

After the handover of sovereignty in 1999 and the exit of the Portuguese administration, pro-Beijing and pro-government interest groups formed by local Chinese dominated Macau's political landscape. The major interest groups may be classified into three clusters: business organizations, labour unions, and neighbourhood groups. This paper examines the significance of interest groups in the enclave's politics and argues that their political power was from extensive grassroots support they received as well as Beijing's united front policies, the government's co-optation strategy, and the quasi-democratic political system. These interest groups also replaced the governor and under-secretaries to become the core of the patron-client networks in the political arena. This paper contends that the changing socio-economic environment, along with the advent of foreign casino investors, will gradually turn social support away from the interest groups and undercut their political influence. Balancing their pro-government stance and their role as representatives of their constituencies will therefore become increasingly difficult.