Political culture and policy making in British Hong Kong, c. 1970-80
This thesis examines state-society relations in the long 1970s, a pivotal period for Hong Kong. Using under-exploited archival evidence, it overcomes the limitations in the existing literature written mainly by political scientists and sociologists, which is primarily theoretically driven and relies on published sources. It explores how a reformist colonial administration investigated changing political culture of the Chinese society, and how political activism and shifting public opinions impacted on policy making. It analyses five case studies: the Chinese as the official language movement, the anti-corruption campaign, the campaign against telephone rate increases, the Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School disputes and immigration from mainland China. It shows how the colonial administration possessed organizational capacity to monitor the movement of opinion direction in the society closely through covert opinion polling exercises, Town Talk and MOOD. These constructed 'public opinions' were circulated and discussed among high ranked civil servants, including the Governor and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They affected policy formulation. Hong Kong people had extremely limited democratic
Mok, Yan Wing Florence
Political culture and policy making in British Hong Kong, c. 1970-80. This thesis examines state-society relations in the long 1970s, a pivotal period for Hong Kong. Using under-exploited archival evidence, it overcomes the limitations in the existing literature written mainly by political scientists and sociologists, which is primarily theoretically driven and relies on published sources. It explores how a reformist colonial administration investigated changing political culture of the Chinese society, and how political activism and shifting public opinions impacted on policy making. It analyses five case studies: the Chinese as the official language movement, the anti-corruption campaign, the campaign against telephone rate increases, the Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School disputes and immigration from mainland China. It shows how the colonial administration possessed organizational capacity to monitor the movement of opinion direction in the society closely through covert opinion polling exercises, Town Talk and MOOD. These constructed 'public opinions' were circulated and discussed among high ranked civil servants, including the Governor and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They affected policy formulation. Hong Kong people had extremely limited democratic
political_culture policy make british hong_kong examines state_society relation long pivotal period hong_kong using under exploited archival_evidence limitation exist_literature write mainly political scientist sociologist primarily theoretically driven relies publish_source explores reformist colonial_administration investigate change political_culture chinese society political_activism shift public_opinion impacted policy_making analysis five_case study chinese official language movement anti corruption campaign campaign telephone rate increase blood golden jubilee secondary_school dispute immigration mainland china show colonial_administration possess organizational capacity monitor movement opinion direction society closely covert opinion exercise town talk mood construct public_opinion circulate discuss among high rank civil_servant include governor foreign commonwealth office affect policy formulation hong_kong people extremely limit democratic