ABSTRACT
The study of interest groups and their relationships with intellectuals and the democracy movement is critical to our deeper understanding of Hong Kong politics. Public intellectuals play a crucial role in forming various interest groups to articulate their demands and interests. At the same time, interest groups have become a vehicle for pro-democracy elites to fight for Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Antonio Gramsci’s conceptualization of intellectuals as “traditional” and “organic” social groups in different societal strata provides us with an essential tool for our deeper understanding of the political role of intellectuals in various types of interest groups in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), whose sovereignty reverted from Britain to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on July 1, 1997. The new democracy movement in the HKSAR is characterized by the leadership and activities of more “organic intellectuals” than ever before, pushing for political transformations in the territory under Chinese sovereignty.
