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The Changing Political Attitudes of the Senior Bureaucrats in Hong Kong's Transition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Joseph Y. S. Cheng  and
Jane C. Y. Lee
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Extract

The empirical study of bureaucrats in the Hong Kong government, particularly in their relationship with politicians in the legislature, is a relatively new subject of academic interest. This effort at systematic research is related to the fact that both senior civil servants and politicians are essential to effective government. While senior civil servants in Hong Kong have dominated the political process in the territory for 150 years, politicians have gained importance since the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Britain signed the Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong in 1984. It follows that the relationships between these two leadership groups are of great interest, theoretically, empirically, practically and politically. The key problem of any government is how these elite groups interact. A major concern is maintaining an efficient and able bureaucracy with enough independence to do an effective job of administration, while operating in a political context in which politicians are competitive and accountable to the electorate, reacting to the constant demands and expectations of special and general interests. The maintenance of a proper balance between efficiency and responsiveness in such an environment has to be achieved if the polity is to function effectively and be stable

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 147 , September 1996 , pp. 912 - 937
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1996

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References

1. See Samuel J. Eldersveld, S. Hub'ee-Boonzaaijer and J. Kooiman, Elite perceptions of the political process in the Netherlands, looked at in comparative perspectives," in M. Dogan (ed.), The Mandarins of Western Europe: The Political Role of Top Civil Servants(New York: Sage Publications, 1975), pp. 129–130.

2. The system of direct elections to the Hong Kong Legislative Council is similar to the general election held in most Western liberal-democratic countries, which is based on the principle of one-man-one-vote. It is contrary to a system of indirect elections which only enfranchises a few hundred district-level representatives to vote in the Legislative Council elections. Indirect elections were held in Hong Kong between 1985 and 1991. Since 1991, they have been replaced by direct elections. For the arguments on direct and indirect elections, see White Paper. The Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong(Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1984), p. 8, and White Paper. The Development of Representative Government - The Way Forward(Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1988), pp. 9–10.

3. G. E. Caiden, The problems of ensuring the public accountability of public officials, in J. G. Jabbra and O. P. Dwivedi (eds.), Public Services Accountability: A Comparative Perspective(Westford, CT: Kumarian, 1988), p. 2. T. B. Smith, The comparative analysis of bureaucratic accountability, Asian Journal of Public Administration,Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1991), pp. 93–104.

4. See An Agreement Between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Future of Hong Kong(Hong Kong: Government Printer, 26 September 1984), p. 15. The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, 1990, Article 3.

5. Our next five years: the agenda for Hong Kong, address by the Governor, the Rt Hon. Christopher Patten at the opening of the 1992–93 Session of the Legislative Council, 7 October 1992, pp. 34–35.

6. Directorate grade officers of the Hong Kong government constitute the most senior group of staff in the civil service, ranging from the posts of chief or principal officers (Dl) in departments to the secretary posts (D8-D10) in policy branches at the Secretariat. The top of the directorate members include the two most important government officers, namely the Chief Secretary (D10) and the Financial Secretary (D9). In view of the diversity of their job nature, there is no formal job description for the posts of directorate grade officers. A Standing Committee on Directorate Salaries and Conditions of Service is responsible for prescribing the different directorate grade levels. For example, the Committee stipulates mat deputy secretary posts in the Secretariat should be ranked at D3 or D4, but no policy branch should have more than one D4 deputy. Departments with a D5 head may also only have one D3 deputy, and in fact 12 of the 15 departments headed by a D6 officer have only one deputy. According to information provided by the Civil Service Branch there is no fixed scientific formula to determine the appropriate ranking of a directorate post. In considering proposals for new directorate posts, a list of factors affects the judgment of the Committee, including the importance of the post, the financial effects, the difficulty of the decisions to be taken and judgment to be exercised, the time available to take decisions, the difficulty of administering the unit (e.g. the size, complexity and geographical location), the political and social abilities required, the leadership required, and the inter-relationship with other units or departments required. Source: Civil Service Branch, Hong Kong government, February 1994.

7. R. D. Putnam, The political attitudes of senior civil servants in Britain, Germany and Italy, in Dogan, The Mandarins of Western Europe,pp. 89–91. Eldersveld, Hub'ee-Boonzaaijer and Kooiman, Elite perceptions of the political process in the Netherlands, pp. 129–134.

8. Putnam, The political attitudes of senior civil servants, p. 110.

9. T. M. Lam and Jane C. Y. Lee, The Dynamic Political Actors in Hong Kong's Transition(Hong Kong: Writers' and Publishers' Co-operatives, 1993), pp. 145–163.

10. According to the Civil Service Branch, there were altogether 1,229 directorate grade officers by April 1993. These staff, including 142 judges, were classified according to those who belonged to the directorate salary scale and those who earned HK$60,000 or above per month at that time. After discounting the judiciary staff and a few who retired or went overseas to attend training courses, 1,066 names were successfully identified as our target group.

11. In order to avoid sensitivity and easy identification, respondents were not asked to indicate what kind of foreign passports they held. Some examples were obvious. Elizabeth Wong, then Secretary for Health and Welfare, was known to have held a New Zealand passport and was on expatriate terms of service. She was thus required to retire in September 1994 at the age of 57 rather than 60.

12. According to the list provided by the Civil Service Branch, 214 directorate grade staff were Administrative Officers. The rest belonged to departmental grade staff.

13. T. T. Lui, Changing civil servants' values, in Ian Scott and John P. Burns (eds.), The Hong Kong Civil Service and Its Future(Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 42.

14. S. K. Lau, Society and Politics in Hong Kong(Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1982), pp. 56–64.

15. By August 1993, there were 369 advisory committees in Hong Kong. Information is provided by the Hong Kong Government Civil Service Branch.

16. South China Morning Post,15 January 1994, p. 19 17. The consortium was the Adwood Company which comprised CITIC Hong Kong (25%), CITIC Pacific (10%) and the Kerry group (15%). Other companies involved in the project included Hong Kong Cross Harbour Tunnel (37%) and China Merchants Holdings (13%). The total cost of the project was estimated at HK$7.5 billion. See South China Morning Post,22 July 1993, p. 1.

18. The amendment was passed by 35 votes to 19. It specified that for the first three years after the tunnel opened in mid-1997, profits would be kept below a ceiling of 16.5% of the investment. The HK$30 toll remained unchanged. See South China Morning Post,22 July 1993, p. 1. See also Dagong bao(Hong Kong), 22 July 1993, p. 2.

19. Jane C. Y. Lee, The exercise of PRC sovereignty: its impact on Hong Kong's governing process in the second half of the political transition, Issues and Studies,Vol. 29, No. 2 (December 1993), p. 99.

20. It should be noted that such a term is not stipulated in either the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Future of Hong Kong or the Basic Law. Answers to this question reflect the perceptions of the senior officials who did not want to see decisions of the PRC actually override those of the Hong Kong government after 1997.