From Colony to SAR: Advocacy Planning in the Executive-Led Polity of Hong Kong

Abstract

In 1997, Hong Kong underwent a momentus transfer of sovereignty. The new SAR government inherited from its coloma/ predecessor a political and admzmstrative structure characterized by bureaucratic dominance which makes it very difficult for advocacy planning to flourish. A pioneer study was conducted of a sample of professional planners to investigate thetr role perceptions and performance, and their inclination to adopt advocacy planning. Results reveal that the respondents were ambivalent in their understanding and orientation to advocacy planning. Planners were largely confused about what constitutes the "public interest". Since they adopted a technocratic role perception and a conservative stance towards planning for social equity, they only recognized supeificially the role of citizen participation, and had a rather negative perceptwn of the ability of the temtory s ascending political representatives to parttcipate in plannmg. They were cautious about the prospects for advocacy planning in Hong Kong and were pessimtstic concerning the post-1997 planning environment. Introduction