TNAG-2217-FCO40-3184-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 121

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would inevitably stimulate further politicization and intensify

political conflict. As the incumbent government, the colonial

government cannot avoid the escalating political heat in the

remaining years of its rule. It will be burdened with more and

more strident political demands which are not amenable to easy

accedence.

The Problem of 'Ungovernability'

When a government whose basis of effective governance has

been eroded is simultaneously overloaded with political demands

and overcharged with political responsibilities, the problem of

'governability' naturally surfaces. Even though the colonial

government bitterly resents the label of 'lame duck,' its image

as a lame duck government has in fact has been increasingly

popularized. As a generic term, 'ungovernability' as a problem in

terms of both substance and seriousness can only be understood in

specific political contexts, for its manifestations differ

greatly across societies.32

In Hong Kong, despite the weakening of the conditions for

effective governance, the government does not face the imminent

32 See for example Michel J. Crozier et. al., The Crisis of Democracy (New York: New York University Press, 1975); Laurence Whitehead, 'On "Governability" in Mexico, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 1, Pt. 1 (October 1981), pp. 27-47;

+ "Ungovernability": The Renaissance of Conservative Theories of Crisis, in his Contradictions of the Welfare State (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1984); Michael C. Hudson, Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977); and Lucian W. Pye, 'The Legitimacy Crisis, in Leonard Binder et. al., Crises and Sequences in Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 135-58.