ABSTRACT
The liberal civil society proponents fail to take into account that Hong Kong has been a colony. This chapter focuses on the origins, interpretations and applications of civil society theory. The modern interpretations of civil society differ both in form and content from their classical and premodern origins, a result of civil society's 'rediscovery' and subsequent redefinition at intermittent historical interludes. The territory's colonial status has meant that it has operated as an authoritarian political system with a history of co-opting local elites as a means of legitimising its ruling structures. The development of the modern French state, with 'the centralization of power and a unified and clearly bounded territory', in tandem with the political turmoil in England 'made the issues of political community and obligation central to the thought of intellectuals.' The Scottish moralists, with their publications Essays: Moral and Political and An Essay on the History of Civil Society, continued to propound and develop the liberal school.
