ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development and nature of various political forces and their alignment and realignment since the 1970s so as to understand the orientation of political groups emerging in the early 1990s and their respective positioning in the budding party market in the ensuing LegCo popular elections. It analyses the emergence of pressure groups in the 1970s against the rapidly changing socio-economic developments. The chapter examines the alignment of political forces and the rise of electoral parties by stages resulting from the political reforms in the 1980s. Two kinds of political groups could be differentiated during the period from the end of the Second World War to the early 1970s. One was the exogenous, ideological political parties of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The other was the endogenous, electoral-oriented political groups of the Reform Club of Hong Kong (RCHK) established in 1949 and the Hong Kong Civic Association (HKCA) formed in 1954.
