State-society relations and public consultation in Hong Kong : a state-in-society approach

Abstract

The state-centered approach is widely applied in the study of politics and governance. Much of the literature has focused on the state and its institutional settings. However, the details about state-society relations and interactions can be overlooked from the state-centered perspective. Taking public consultation as an example; current theories usually focus on the normative definition and forms of consultation or the relations between its application and the political stability of the regime. In contrast, there is very little attention on the detailed interaction between the state and the society in public consultations.

This dissertation fills the above gap by examining the detailed interaction and dynamics between the state and the society in the public consultations of Hong Kong. A state-in-society approach is adopted to overcome the limitations of the traditional focus on the institutional setting and the state behaviors. The competition, cooperation, struggle, and accommodations between the state and society actors during public consultations are investigated in this research.

Throughout this investigation, two sets of cases are studied to reveal the interaction between the state and the society: large-scale public engagement and small-scale public consultations. By integrating both sets of cases, three major findings are observed. (1) Firstly, the effect of public consultations is limited in terms of enhancing the state’s social control. (2) Secondly, the boundary between the state and the society is not as clear as is often assumed. There are numerous opportunities of cooperation between the parts of the state and the society. The state and the society are often mutually dependent on each other to better gain social control and influence and thus, (3) thirdly, neither the state nor the society is a unified or coherent entity.

The research findings proved the complexity of state-society interactions in public consultations. In public consultations, the state and the society do not necessarily stand in a dichotomous relationship. The struggle and accommodation of the state and the society reveal a dynamic process of interactions in the consultations, which deserves more attention.