ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 presents the institutional context since the handover. It first recalls the main principles of the Basic Law, which frame the decision-making process of the actors, be they the Hong Kong government, the Beijing authorities or the protesters. It then describes the changes and continuities since the colonial era. In particular, it indicates that, if the Chief Executive (CE) has large powers, similar to the Governor before, s/he is often unable to exert them, due to a lack of procedural and by-performance legitimacy. Three reasons justify this situation. The first is the degrading economic situation immediately after the 1997 financial crisis. The second is the disarticulated nature of the political system since the handover, and the third is the lack of flexibility of the political system, which was partly caused by the Basic Law, the business élites and Beijing. The introduction of the universal suffrage was seen as a remedy to this situation, but the restrictive framework proposed by Beijing has dashed this hope. In this situation, the CE cannot have the strength to implement any necessary economic reforms.
