Comparative Hong Kong Politics Mathew Y

Comparative Hong Kong Politics Mathew Y. H. Wong Comparative Hong Kong Politics

A Guidebook for Students and Researchers Mathew Y. H. Wong Department of Politics and Public Administration University of Hong Kong Pokfulam, Hong Kong

ISBN 978-981-10-3095-6 ISBN 978-981-10-3096-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3096-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017930828

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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This Palgrave imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore To WKW, who is truly incomparable Acknowledgements

The idea of this book originated during my preparation for my job talk when I was forced, for the very first time, to think systematically about my research on Hong Kong. As the main field of my Ph.D. study was not focused on Hong Kong, a research agenda in this area was not needed until then. Fortunately the job talk went well (not sure if it would had they known the truth). I am very grateful for the opportunities my colleagues and the Department granted me. I am indebted to several long-term mentors, Hugh Ward, Sing Ming, and Eric Chui, for their continued guidance and support. As my Ph.D. supervisor, Hugh Ward has always been kind and supportive, giving me a great deal of freedom in pursuing my own research interests (which led to Hong Kong-related research). After all these years, I am now convinced that there is no area within political science that he is not familiar with. It goes without saying that I benefit immensely from this. Sing Ming opened my doors to the world of politics (especially Hong Kong politics) during my undergraduate studies in finance at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His teachings allowed me to recognize what I wanted to do with my life, and his countless reference letters opened doors for me to pursue that. Eric Chui offered me the opportunity to get on board his ambitious projects despite my rather different research area. Over time I have come to understand the value and meaning of those studies, and the cross-discipline collaborations have broadened my horizon. I would also like to thank Jacob Dreyer, the editor at Palgrave, and other staff for their help on the production and publication of this book.

vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My research assistants and students, including Dominic Ho, Hayley Lau, Peter Lau, Jack Leung, Michael Pang, Lydia Sung, Alex Tang, and Vanessa Tsang, also contributed to various aspects of this project. Lastly, I would like to show my unreserved gratitude toward my wife and my family, who provide me a major source of motivation to do more and to do better. In particular, my wife has always been there during my ups and downs at every transition in my life. She has always accepted me for what I am, and sometimes tries to make me better through her very gentle methods. In a movie that we both enjoyed, the male character was told by others that ‘She made you decent, and in return you made her so happy, so happy’. If I cannot make the world better for everyone by studying social sciences (no surprise there), at the very least I will always try to make her happy. Contents

Part I What is Comparative Hong Kong Politics? 1

1 Comparative Politics: An Introduction 3

2 Methods in Comparative Politics 15

3 Hong Kong Politics: An Overview 35

Part II Political Regime 51

4 State 53

5 Democracy 71

6 Democratization 105

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Part III Political Institutions 137

7 Presidentialism and Parliamentarism 139

8 Political Parties and Party Systems 155

9 Electoral Systems 181

10 Holistic Approaches to Political Institution Design 201

Part IV Political Economy 235

11 Democratic and Authoritarian Performances 237

12 Income Inequality 263

13 Conclusion 279

Index 285 About the Author

Mathew Y. H. Wong is assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Essex. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as European Political Science Review, Studies in Comparative International Development, International Political Science Review, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Asian Studies Review, and China Review, among other journals. He has also partici- pated in collaborative efforts in studying well-being among the youth in Hong Kong, with publications in Social Indicators Research, Child Indicators Research, and Journal of Family Issues. He currently teaches courses in Comparative Politics and Hong Kong Politics at the University of Hong Kong, and has previous teaching experiences at the University of Essex, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Open University of Hong Kong.

xi Abbreviations

ABS Asian Barometer Survey ADPL Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood AO Administrative Officer AUS Alliance for Universal Suffrage AV Alternative Vote CE Chief Executive CEPA Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement CP Civic Party CS Chief Secretary for Administration CSES Comparative Study of Electoral Systems DAB Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong DC District Council DP Democratic Party EAC Electoral Affairs Commission EC Election Committee ENPP Effective Number of Political Parties ExCo Executive Council FC Functional Constituency FDI Foreign Direct Investment FTU Federation of Trade Unions GC Geographical Constituency GDP Gross Domestic Product HKMA Hong Kong Monetary Authority HKSAR Hong Kong Special Administrative Region LegCo Legislative Council LP Liberal Party

xiii xiv ABBREVIATIONS

LSD League of Social Democrats LSq Least Squares Index MMP Mixed Member Proportional MNC Multinational Corporations NGO Non-Governmental Organization NSM New social Movements OCTS One Country Two Systems OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OLS Ordinary Least Squares PBV Party Block Vote POAS Principal Officials Accountability System PP People Power PR Proportional Representation SAR Special Administrative Region SMP Single-Member Plurality SNTV Single Non-Transferable Vote WVS World Values Survey List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 A regression line of score (Y) on hour (X) 20 Fig. 2.2 Spurious relationship 25 Fig. 2.3 Labor and growth in the Asian cases, 1970–1981. Adopted from Geddes (2003, 102) 27 Fig. 2.4 Labor and growth in the full universe of developing countries, 1970–1981. Adapted from Geddes (2003, 103) 28 Fig. 5.1 A classification of authoritarian regimes. Adapted from Clark et al. (2012, 355, 365) and Cheibub et al. (2010) 90 Fig. 5.2 Levitsky and Way’s conception of hybrid regimes 94 Fig. 5.3 Larry Diamond’s six-fold regime typology 95 Fig. 5.4 O’Donnell and Schmitter’s conception of hybrid regimes 96 Fig. 5.5 Post-war democracy trends 98 Fig. 5.6 Effect of different polity cut-offs 99 Fig. 5.7 Freedom House democracy trends 100 Fig. 6.1 Waves of democracy since 1800 107 Fig. 6.2 Modernization theory: traditional interpretation (left) and Przeworski et al.’s interpretation (right) 110 Fig. 6.3 Top-down model of regime transition 120 Fig. 6.4 Solving the transition game under a weak civil society (left) and a strong civil society (right) 121 Fig. 6.5 A model of political reform in Hong Kong 123 Fig. 6.6 Solving the transition game under a weak civil society (left) and a strong civil society (right) in Hong Kong 125 Fig. 9.1 Party competition in a plurality voting system 192 Fig. 10.1 The median voter 209 Fig. 10.2 Party competition and the median voter 210

xv xvi List of Figures

Fig. 10.3 Lijphart’s two-dimensional map of democracy 1981–2010 220 Fig. 11.1 Selectorate and winning coalition 246 Fig. 11.2 Government spending by sector (% GDP) 254 Fig. 11.3 Government spending by sector (% total spending) 255 Fig. 12.1 A typical right-skewed income distribution 267 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Method of Agreement 17 Table 2.2 Method of Difference 17 Table 2.3 A sample dataset 20 Table 2.4 A sample regression table 22 Table 2.5 Case study and large-N study 29 Table 4.1 A comparison of the factors affecting autonomy 61 Table 5.1 Dahl’s institutional criteria of democracy 73 Table 5.2 Polity IV component measures of democracy 77 Table 5.3 Freedom House scores for Hong Kong 81 Table 5.4 Breakdown of Polity scores for Hong Kong, 1998–2014 86 Table 6.1 Indicators of democratic support and authoritarian rejection 116 Table 6.2 Payoffs for each player in the transition game 121 Table 6.3 Payoffs for Beijing and the opposition in Hong Kong 124 Table 6.4 Summary of political reforms in post-1997 Hong Kong 126 Table 7.1 Main features of presidential and parliamentary systems 142 Table 8.1 A summary of left and right in politics 158 Table 8.2 Party models in Hong Kong 161 Table 8.3 ‘Differential’ and ‘deviation’ of political parties in Hong Kong 163 Table 8.4 Effective number of political parties in Hong Kong 170 Table 9.1 An example of the proportional representation system 184 Table 9.2 Electoral disproportionality in Hong Kong 190 Table 10.1 Dimensions of two models of democracy 214 Table 10.2 Hong Kong and the two models of democracy 224 Table 11.1 Selectorate theory and regime types 248 Table 11.2 Selectorate and winning coalition in Hong Kong 251 Table 11.3 Perception of corruption in Hong Kong 256

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