Government-Society Relations and the Politics of Administrative Reform in Hong Kong

Administrative reforms are usually implemented for enhancing efficiency, reducing expenditure and improving the quality of public services. External and internal political forces may sometimes prompt reforms. All these factors have been responsible to some extent for the reform attempts undertaken in Hong Kong over the past three decades. Another factor that is not usually recognised in studies on reform is the relationship between the government and society. Administrative reforms undertaken in Hong Kong during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have been preceded by social, economic and political events that have transformed the relationship between the government and society. While small adjustments and tinkering with the existing system was attempted in the 1970s, reforms of a substantial nature had to be introduced in the 1980s. During the 1990s, the relationship changed more radically, and this was reflected in the nature of the latest round of reforms. In order to cope with such changing relationships, the government resorted to administrative reforms as a tool for accommodating changes.