ABSTRACT
This chapter reviewed social-economic-political contexts for Tung Chee-hwa administration during 2002–2005. The analysis of eight cases during the period confirms the following hypothesis: when the structural reforms expand the role differentiation between political appointees and civil servants, the political-administrative relations in policymaking are likely to be adversarial or collaborative or mutually respectful depending on the actors’ backgrounds and other issue-based context. In general, the political appointees under Tung administration lacked coordination largely due to their different career backgrounds and divided ideologies. The contrasting styles of some proactive and risk-taking political appointees, and reactive and risk-averse senior civil servants, often resulted in adversarial political-administrative relations in policymaking. At other times, different career and professional backgrounds between political appointees and civil servants did not result in conflictual working relations partly because of their shared policy goals. Personnel management reforms that downsized the civil service, reduced civil service pay and widened management-staff pay differences during the time also heightened the level of political-administrative conflicts. While the structural reform brought in new ideas and initiatives to the government and opened up opportunities for civil servants to develop a political career, the adversarial political-administrative relations also increased the pressure to further functionally politicise the civil service, leading to the introduction of political advisors by Tsang Ying-kuen administration.
