4.8.
(e)
substantially in persons rather than offices, stable procedures, and institutions. The individual citizen or subordinate, then, must generally appeal to the interests of the decision maker, and diffuse (but important) concepts of
'fairness,' rather than to regulations that make
decision-making outcomes predictable. Decision making and bargaining tend to shade into one another in a poorly instituitonalised system.
A poorly institutionalised system may not have much respect for barriers between systems.
In some societies guided by directive or executive fiat, there may be no place at all for independent approach to issues which cross a line of acceptability. In them, campaigns result often in the mobilisation of officials in a way that blurs the line between policy and law. Just as the means of pressure and interference from above may vary, so too does its motive. It may be based on a legitimate concern for national security, accompanied by an illegitimate usurping of local authority; or it may be based on a fear of the foolishness or sense of local officials. But however it is justified, and however sensible or necessary it may seem to those who authorise it, often it reflects personal whim; it can distort or destroy feelings of personal security and good order in the population. And once used, I imagine that it can undermine autonomy irretrievably. But will the PRC cross the barrier between the systems? And what is the barrier?
Some of (a) to (e) above may appear contradictory.
I do not believe
that they are, It will all depend on what is believed to be at risk.
No
I think we need to look at this internally as well as externally. government serves a free society adequately by compromising on the professional integrity of its institutions. Such compromises may come in many forms.
They include inculcating a belief into public servants that the general good may require decisions to be taken according to unprofessional criteria. If this were to happen now, it would lead in my view to public servants after 1997 being required more readily to accord precedence to the need for overt demonstrations of loyalty to government rather than concerns for the merits of individual issues which fall to be decided. Is this a danger being courted by the government of this particular British Dependent Territory? I do not yet have adequate data for a concluded view, and am reporting information written up by others, but I think the issue is too important to ignore. There are questions which need to be asked. question is whether governmental strategy for Hong Kong is going to allow those in a position to do so to grasp the real nettle of ensuring as great a degree of autonomy to individual civil servants and others as is consonant with their positions. I was shocked by the editing of school textbooks mentioned in paragraph 2.13 above, and what it implies
One