11
social and economic affairs. The practices of laissez faire and
social non-interventionism by the government had the effect of
'insulating' society and polity from each other, in effect
'isolating' the government from the social and economic conflicts
in society.10
(7) Low level of social conflict. Even though Hong Kong was a
society characterized by social inequalities, Hong Kong had been
generally free from serious social conflicts. The strength of
family ties, the 'trickle down' effects of the miraculous
economic growth in the post-war period, the service and welfare
provisions of the government and the muted ethnic discrimination
were major explanatory factors. The general abhorrence of
conflict in Chinese political culture also played a role here.
Social conflict was also reduced by the general expectation
of abundant opportunities in society, and the general acceptance
of the assumption that reliance on individual efforts could
uplift one's socio-economic standing, even though in reality Hong
Kong was far from an open society.12
11
10 Lau Siu-kai, Society and Politics in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1982) and Norman Miners, The Government and Politics of Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 4th ed., 1986).
11 See Lucien W. Pye, The Spirit of Chinese Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1968), and Richard H. Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971).
12 See Lau Siu-kai and Ho Kam-fai, 'Social Accommodation of Politics: The Case of Young Hong Kong Workers,' Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Vol. 20 (July 1982), pp. 177-88; Lau and Kuan, The Ethos, pp. 63-64; Tsang Wing-kwong, Class Structure and Social Mobility in Hong Kong: The Weberian Approach (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, May 1990).
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