The political economy of recasting the constitutional debate in Hong Kong

People obtain value, or gain utility, from procedures rather than merely from outcomes. Academic researchers are slowly and selectively coming to terms with this fact, but it is neither sufficiently nor widely appreciated by actors in Hong Kong's political arena, whether at the center or on the periphery. The territory is grappling with the issue of democratic reform— both its pace and scope— but the heated exchanges between the proponents and the opponents of representative government are confined to the outcome utility of the various constitutional proposals. It is essential to incorporate the procedural element into this incomplete picture

The institutional foundations of environmental governance regimes: The implications of Chinese practices

Ecological threats continue to proliferate at a worrisome pace and in many circumstances defy efforts to neutralize them. Mounting concerns about the gap between the scale of biophysical disruption and policy performance have stimulated both academic and engineering-type interest in the effectiveness/ consequences of environmental governance regimes. An issue which has not received sufficient attention is the degree to which such regulatory mechanisms are in tune with their socio-institutional setting rather than merely the natural systems which they aim to safeguard. China’s experience suggests that this is a question which merits close examination

The transfer of property rights from the public to the private sector in Hong Kong: A critical assessment

The privatization idea may have lost some of its luster in recent years, but it remains relevant in today’s socio-economic environment and is pursued consistently in industrialized and industrializing countries alike. Hong Kong has followed the general pattern in a manner reflecting its particular circumstances and its institutional modus operandi. The underlying logic may not appear highly compelling, from a short-term perspective, yet there are sound grounds for approaching the task positively, if viewed from a multi-year standpoint. Rather surprisingly, for such a quintessentially capitalist society, Hong Kong has not confronted the privatization challenge astutely on the political front and has handled it somewhat mechanically in managerial terms. The benefits to the community may have thus been more modest than one could legitimately expect, given the historical backdrop

The political economy of Hong Kong's "open skies" legal regime: an empirical and theoretical exploration

Copyright 2009 San Diego International Law Journal. Reprinted with the permission of the San Diego International Law Journal.The article presents an empirical and theoretical research which describes the functions of the international legal regime through powerful economic forces in Hong Kong, China. The government applied aviation policies with respect to open skies platform to provide a basis for a thorough understanding of government's legitimacy based on neoclassical logic and analysis. Conceptual perspectives of realists, liberals and cognitivists were acknowledged by the economically-inspired nationalists

The political economy of loose regulation: Modernity meets tradition in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a fascinating social laboratory where one can observe the interplay between powerful forces of modernization and deeply-entrenched pre-industrial consumption patterns. For decades, the former had not encroached on the autonomy of grassroots-style forms of health care, but the enactment of the Chinese Medicine Ordinance in 1999 has brought the latter under the grip of the state, albeit in the weak sense of the term. This particular episode may offer insights into the dynamics of the two-way adjustment that takes place when the divergent paths of the mainstream and traditional sectors inevitably cross, prompting regulatory and developmental responses

The anatomy of corruption in China: A political economy perspective

Corrupt acts are believed to be disturbingly common in Chinese society and may have become increasingly so during the reform era because of greater opportunities available to seek material advantage and growing socio-cultural fluidity. Given the magnitude of the problem and its policy implications, it has been subject to a wide-ranging academic examination. Economically-oriented research however has not evolved in a manner commensurate with the challenge the country faces on this front. There is arguably a need to broaden and deepen the effort involved, in a flexible but systematic fashion

Conversationalism, constitutional economics and bicameralism: Strategies for political reform in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has at long last regained the economic momentum lost in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and the collapse of the local property market. However, political friction and uncertainty have escalated rather than subsided, because of deep-rooted divisions over the pace of democratic reform. There are no simple remedies for the constitutional deadlock that has emerged. Nevertheless, it might be possible to improve the overall political climate and both the form and substance of the dialog regarding fundamental institutional reform by borrowing some ideas from constitutional economics