ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some of the complexities masked by broad terms such as "legitimation" and "consent". Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s there were several moves towards greater democratic representation in government, largely by the extension of voting rights and representation to legislative bodies. The chapter explains policing in Hong Kong, which broadly follows the historical development of policing in the territory and the issues of legitimation and consent which have surfaced over time. In Britain, the legitimations of policing are based upon the accountability of police forces to law, local police authorities, and national government. A police force was set up within a few months of Britain's taking possession of the island, with an initial establishment of eleven Europeans and 21 Chinese. Hong Kong, on the Pearl River delta in southern China, became a British colony in 1841 and will become a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997.
