Framing the Democracy Debate in Hong Kong

Abstract

This article examines the discourses of democracy in the context of political development in Hong Kong during the first 12 years after the 1997 handover using rhetoric and frame analysis. Overall, the study shows how political actors define political options and promote development, which is favourable to their interests and views, through framing democracy in different ways. The study reveals the frames that describe different points of view, and contributes to the understanding of democrats' position as re-framers. The found frames are clustered into paradigmatic framesets that deal with the concrete democracy issue and the political situation in present-day Hong Kong. Consequently, the democracy debate in Hong Kong is organised around two opposite and idealised templates for democracy. The first cluster forms the pro-establishment model, which suggests solutions built around consensus and practical means. The second frameset, mostly used by the pro-democrats, supports the idea of a wider democratic change which entails broad normative changes in politics.This article examines the frames and the idea of democracy in the context of political development through rhetoric and frame analysis. The research objective is to analyse the discussion on political development in Hong Kong concentrating on the democracy rhetoric after the 1997 handover. The period has been dominated by several wide-ranging topics, including the deepening interaction with Mainland China, concerns about Hong Kong's economic performance with the diminishing middle class, a firm demand for democracy and a half million people marching in the streets, and the debate over constitutional development. Studying democracy development through rhetoric is addressed to increase the understanding of the acts, efforts, intentions and narratives of different political actors, with frame analysis being at the core of the research.The study applies frame analysis to Hong Kong politics by examining how different political actors frame political issues and how the presence of frames varies within the public area. More particularly, the study is concerned with the discourses of political actors who participate in the democratisation process. Concerning the political development, frames are affected by the underlying traditional culture.

Resource disparity and multi-level elections in competitive authoritarian regimes: Regression discontinuity evidence from Hong Kong

“…One of the most salient electoral cleavages in Hong Kong's legislative elections is political liberalization (Oksanen, 2011). In times of elections, pandemocratic candidates frequently exploit this cleavage by urging the government to implement universal suffrage in the election of the Chief Executive and to abolish the functional constituencies, while criticizing the proestablishment camp as a hurdle to democratization.…”

“Please continue to be an anime lover”: The use of defamation metaphors in Hong Kong electoral discourse

“…In contrast, the pro-democracy camp (or opposition parties) takes a more progressive stance towards democratisation, advocating an immediate and thorough political reform that endorses the highest degree of autonomy (Oksansen, 2011). The Democratic Party (DP), the Civic Party (CP), the Labour Party, the League of Social Democrats (LSD) and People Power (PP) form part of this camp.…”

“…The pro-establishment camp, also called pro-Beijing, pro-government or the conservative camp, adopts a more conservative ideology towards democratisation, supporting a gradual and incremental reform process (Oksansen, 2011). Parties belonging to this camp often align with the incumbent HKSAR administration and the Chinese Central Government.…”

What predicts threat perceptions toward people opposing to the government? A population-based study following Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong

“…In addition, the socialization thesis suggests that political attitudes are transmitted to students through social learning processes (Dunn, 2011). Because tertiary education is westernized and liberal in Hong Kong (Curry, 2012;Mok & Cheung, 2011) and Hong Kong society is generally liberal (Ma, 2011;Oksanen, 2011), tertiary education may tend to predispose university graduates to more left-wing political attitudes (Hastie, 2007;Weakliem, 2002). Consistent with the socialization thesis, the current study found that relative to respondents with secondary education level, respondents with tertiary education level demonstrated lower odds of perceived Lower perceived threat of protestors to the economy was found in unmarried respondents in the current study.…”