ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the presentation of a model of an 'operative political system'. It examines the retrocession and the concomitant rise of patriotism and nationalism, both of which subordinate the local identity under a broader Chinese identity. The book explains the second level of Offe's model was civil society. It explores that a dynamic Hong Kong identity did exist, located within the 'citizenship and the territorial as well as social and cultural boundaries of the [Hong Kong] nation-state'. The book talks about several crises that forced the colonial regime to introduce social and political reforms where there had been no incentive for reform. The social basis for Hong Kong's liberalisation was characterised by the socio-political mobilisation of the Hong Kong nation in conjunction with the removal of the high degree of path dependency that had determined the developmental course of the local nation.