Introduction: The Uniqueness of Hong Kong Democracy

Abstract

Hong Kong became a British colony with the Treaty of Nanking in 1843 and then became a Special Administrative Region in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on July 1, 1997. However, traditionally and academically, Hong Kong has never been seen as a democracy. Arguably, if democracy has various types without being monopolized by the Western world, and if democracy is defined in terms of the protection of civil liberties and some degrees of checks and balances against the executive branch of the government, then the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) under the sovereignty of the PRC is a unique and localized version of democracy. This Introduction first examines the definitions and dimensions of democracy by focusing on the works from David Potter, Samuel Huntington and Charles Tilly and then explores the uniqueness of the Hong Kong model of democracy as well as its implications for the study of comparative politics.