ABSTRACT
During the 1970s, the strategy developed to secure popular support for the damaged regime combined a wide-range of social control measures, measures to develop a new sense of civic responsibility. In accordance with Sir Murray MacLehose’s policy of ‘community building’, much time and effort was expended on building bridges between the government and the people, stimulating local organisations to become involved in social affairs. MacLehose’s acknowledgment of the extent of corruption–and of its existence within the police–was noted by the media and described as ‘the frankest commentary on this issue ever heard by the legislature from a Hong Kong Governor. The new institutions of the MacLehose era closed the communication gap between government and citizens by a means of ‘manipulating local sentiment’. The commitment to clean government, which Scott identifies as the hallmark of the MacLehose era, won the administration general support and consent for other measures of social control.
