ABSTRACT
Hong Kong is sometimes described as a liberal autocracy (Zakaria 1997). It remained a British colony until it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 as a Special Administrative Region (The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or the HKSAR) under the concept of “one country, two systems.” Since the 1980s, partial democracy has been introduced in the sense that a portion of the seats of the legislature are returned by universal suffrage. The government, including the chief executive, remains non-elected. Civil liberties have been fairly well protected, especially since the latter days of colonial rule (from around the 1970s). It is thus worth exploring how a city-state that is non-liberal democratic, with a high level of socioeconomic development and a robust civil society, has been handling the fiscal pressure on the welfare regime and popular pressure for maintaining if not increasing welfare spending.
