Public Attitudes toward Political Leadership in Hong Kong: The Formation of Political Leaders

Abstract

Since 1974, more than thirty countries in southern Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe have shifted from authoritarian to democratic systems of government. This third wave global democratic transformation,1 as compared with the two waves in the past, is distinctive in its low incidence of mass mobilization and violence. Instead, a majority of the new democracies were made via negotiations, compromises, and agreements, usually by political elites with divergent interests, political beliefs, and bases of support. In Hong Kong, on the contrary, despite some small achievements in democratization, largely as a result of the initiative taken by the departing British colonial rulers, Hong Kong's political elites have so far failed to agree upon a set of democratic procedures for the territory. What is more, this issue has from time to time erupted to sow additional seeds of discord among the elites, making unity among them even more unlikely. When Chris Patten, the new governor of Hong Kong, proposed a political reform package at the end of 1992 to speed up democratic changes, the elites divided to an unprecedented degree. Bitter polarization among them has left political wounds that will take years to heal.