Making Sense of Participation: The Political Culture of Pro-democracy Demonstrators in Hong Kong

2008 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 84-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis L. F. Lee ◽  
Joseph M. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Opinion Expression ◽  
Important Means

AbstractA wave of large-scale demonstrations from 2003 to 2006 has given rise to a new pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and raised important questions about the political activism of the Hong Kong public. This study aims at achieving a better understanding of the cultural underpinnings of Hong Kong people's protest participation (and non-participation). Following a tradition of constructivist analysis which sees culture as a set of shared and more or less structured ideas, symbols, feelings and common senses, this study examines how participants in the pro-democracy protests make sense of their experiences and the ongoing political and social changes in Hong Kong. It shows that the 1 July 2003 demonstration has indeed empowered many of its participants, but feelings of efficacy became more complicated and mixed as people continued to monitor changes in the political environment and interpret the actions of others. At the same time, beliefs and ideas that can be regarded as part of Hong Kong's culture of de-politicization remain prevalent among the protesters. The findings of the study allow us to understand why many Hong Kong people view protests as important means of public opinion expression and yet participate in them only occasionally.

Understanding the Political Culture of Hong Kong: The Paradox of Activism and Depoliticization. By Lamwai-Man. [Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe, 2004. xi +291 pp. $72.95. ISBN: 0-7656-1313-1.]

2004 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 1108-1109
Author(s):  
Agnes S. Ku
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Political Apathy

Buttressed by local scholarship, the conventional understanding of Hong Kong's political culture has long dwelt on the notions of apathy and indifference. Understanding the Political Culture of Hong Kong advances an interesting and provocative thesis to refute the conventional claim by taking readers through a historical journey of Hong Kong's major conflict events between 1949 and 1979. The author ambitiously seeks to engage in a critical evaluation of the conventional theses, especially that by Siu-kai Lau in the 1980s. Lau's idea of utilitarian familism, which is much cited in Hong Kong studies, provides an explanation of political apathy that locates the causes in the wider culture as well as in weak state-society relations. Questioning Lau's thesis on strong methodological, conceptual and empirical grounds, the author aims to present an alternative reading of Hong Kong politics, which she captures well in the subtitle: the paradox of activism and depoliticization.Contrary to Lau, the author argues that political participation was neither minimal nor simply utilitarian. She broadens the conception of political participation to include political acts targeted at the local government, the Chinese government and private institutions; discursive activities through the press; and politically relevant activities via social organizations and social movements. Using a multiple-case interpretive approach, she draws on 13 events as case studies and analyses them in terms of their scale, intensity, publicity, significance and ideological claims. The author maintains that all of the events were “impressive” and were “part of larger movements that persisted over a number of decades and that were sustained by the particular nature of society and politics at that time” (p. 229). These testify to the existence of significant levels of political activism. Adding a twist to her argument, the author further maintains that a culture of depoliticization existed side by side with political activism, which functioned to check left-wing activism in the context of Cold War and Chinese politics.

Initiatives, Referenda and Socialism in Switzerland

1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Libbey
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
British Labour

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN DEMOCRATIC STATES HAVE USUALLY COME into existence as the manifestation of a principle of political philosophy or as the result of a compromise among forces with different aspirations for the polity. Often both factors have been involved. Certainly the consequences for political behaviour of introducing any particular structure have been of concern to its architects, but many of these consequences are unforeseeable and the actual impact of an institutional change or the character of a formal role may in time become quite different from that intended.For a political actor, such as an individual, an interest group or a party, formal structures are given attributes of the political environment. Along with the more diffuse qualities of the political culture, they constitute the framework within which political actors must compete for influence over public policy. This framework, both formal and informal, is uneven in its effects on the fortunes of the various political forces. It favours some approaches and some groups more and in different ways than it favours others. The British Labour Party, with its concentrated voting strength, is disadvantaged by the single-member district/plurality electoral system, while its counterpart in Germany is able to maximize its strength in a system of proportional representation.

The People

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The People ◽  
Chinese Political Culture

This chapter explores the reasons for the recurrence of large-scale popular uprisings throughout imperial history. It considers how the idea of rebellion correlates with fundamental principles of Chinese political culture, such as monarchism and intellectual elitism. Moreover, the chapter looks at why the rebellions serve to support rather than disrupt the empire's longevity. These issues are then related to the broader issue of the political role of the “people,” here referring primarily, although not exclusively, to the lower strata, in the Chinese imperial enterprise. In answering these questions, this chapter focuses on ideological and social factors that both legitimated rebellions and also enabled their accommodation within the imperial enterprise.

Hong Kong's Post-1997 Institutional Crisis: Problems of Governance and Institutional Incompatibility

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony B. L. Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
National Security ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Political Logic

The protest by over half a million people on July 1, 2003, unleashed the most serious crisis of governance in Hong Kong since its retrocession to China in 1997. Triggered by the government's attempt to legislate new national security legislation, it exposed more fundamental institutional defects of an increasingly weakened government. This article puts forward two arguments. First, the political logic of the pre-1997 period was not compatible with the post-1997 political environment and public sentiment, resulting in a widening cognitive gap between government and people. Second, the former colonial administration, despite its non-democratic nature, was able to secure sufficient public acquiescence and acceptance through economic performance and service delivery. The new government was constrained by both economic and fiscal difficulties and unexpected social crises. A declining capacity to perform effectively had further eroded public support. Attempted reforms of the bureaucracy and the introduction of a new ministerial system had caused greater political-administrative disjunction and actually compounded the crisis of governance.

Corporate Repertoires of Control and Performances of Power in a Contested Land Deal in Senegal

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 675-703
Author(s):  
Marie Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
The Past

AbstractFarmland investments have attracted numerous entrepreneurs and companies to Africa in the past two decades. However, acquiring, retaining, and exploiting large-scale landholdings is more complicated than it seems. Investors need to persuade governments and populations of their anticipated benefits and limit dissenting voices when they emerge. Focusing on a contested land project in Senegal, Gagné develops the concept of “repertoires of control” to analyze the different performances of power that companies deploy to assert and legitimize their land claims. She argues that to survive, companies must continually adapt these performances to changes in the political environment of their host countries.

scholarly journals Assessing (In)security after the Arab Spring: The Case of Egypt

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 727-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Striking Success ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Military ◽  
Islamist Movement

In nearly three years, Egypt has transitioned from a large-scale uprising against one of the region's longest-standing rulers to an even more massive revolt that led to the military ousting the country's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. Between the two popular uprisings, new pacts and unlikely alliances emerged, deepened, and, in some cases, then disappeared. For its part, the army evolved from being an accomplice of the old regime, to then being an uneasy partner of the ascendant Muslim Brotherhood and, most recently, on to rebranding itself as an ally of non-Islamists and a protector of the popular will. Loosely aligned liberals, leftists, and nationalists, meanwhile, shifted from offering support for democratic elections to backing a “democratic” coup out of fear that the elected Islamists might monopolize and never relinquish power in a conservative new regime. That fear came in response to the Brotherhood's own shifting position, which moved from a commitment to “participation not domination” to a strategy of controlling the legislature and the presidency, although they were ultimately forced back into hiding before they could neutralize the judiciary and the army. And finally, the other Islamist movement, the ultraconservative Salafists, initially displayed no interest in the political process, but then mobilized and ultimately enjoyed striking success in the elections of 2011–12. Surprisingly, however, despite their presumed ideological proximity to the Brotherhood, many Salafists went on to back the military's removal of Morsi in July 2013, but then did not lend support to the interim government that was constructed in wake of Morsi's fall. In this multilayered, fast-paced political environment, mass protests, arrests, and violence have become routine.

scholarly journals Comparative Analysis of Southern Caucasus Countries’ Political Systems

2018 ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Konstantine Shubitidze ◽  
Tornike Tevdoradze
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political System ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Southern Caucasus ◽  
Points Of View

Caucasus is one of the most popular region for the world in the political view. Three countries – Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – are part of that region. Despite of the close ties between them and the neighborhood, they have political system similarities and differences as well.  In the paper, we will discuss and compare those three countries from different points of view: political regimes, types of government, number of ministries, economics, political culture, political parties in the parliament and demography. We will find out which country is much forward in these spares, what are their problems and perspectives, what their main political course is and how they interact to each other. In addition to that, we will also discuss and prove our statements by the statistical data of democracy level or political transparency. In addition, it will show some actual problems in the region to the reader and finally it will draw clear picture of the political environment in the region. Keywords: Political Regimes, Democracy, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ministries, Government, Political Parties, Demography, Economy, Political Culture

The Political Culture of Kwun Tong: A Chinese Community in Hong Kong

1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambrose Yeo-chi King
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Industrial Community ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
Systematic Explanation ◽  
Continuity And Discontinuity

AbstractThis is a study of political culture of Kwun Tong, a fast-developing industrial community of Hong Kong. Employing a set of concepts developed by sociologists and political scientists, it is attempted to give a systematic explanation of data, thereby throwing some lights on the understanding of people's attitudes and orientations towards politics. This study can provide us with a theoretical and empirical base, be preliminary as it may, to probe into the nature of the political system of the Colony. In analyzing the data bearing on the political culture of the Hong Kong community, empirical findings of other societies are utilized in order to give it a comparative perspective. Furthermore, the Chinese traditional political-cultural value systems have been used as a point of reference, thus showing the continuity and discontinuity of the Chinese political culture of Kwun Tong under investigation Before embarking on analyzing the data directly, a brief articulation of the theoretical framework is in order.

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