Public Administration Research in Hong Kong and Macau. Hon S. Chan & Jie Gao. Department of Public and Social Administration

Transcription

1 Public Administration Research in Hong Kong and Macau Hon S. Chan & Jie Gao Department of Public and Social Administration City University of Hong Kong The East Asian city-states of Hong Kong and Macau are significant for their distinctive public administration model. In order to maintain stability during their political transition, leaders of socialist China introduced an intriguing framework of one country, two systems to govern the former colonies when they returned to Chinese sovereignty in the late 1990s. Under this system, Hong Kong and Macau are special administrative regions (SAR) of China. They were permitted to retain their capitalist economic system and their selfadministered governments for 50 years after the handover (Canning 2001). The details of one country, two systems in each city-state are enshrined in its mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The effects, however, of implementing one country, two systems in the two SARs are markedly different after the first decade of this experiment (Qi 2005). Today, the executiveled government in Hong Kong is seen by its citizens as one of the SAR s principal problems, whereas in Macau a similar government is considered a reliable source of solutions to many of that city-state's problems. In this regard, Hong Kong and Macau provide an interesting case study of public administration in transitional societies in East Asia. This article examines the quality and character of public administration research in Hong Kong and Macau, after which it explores critical issues in the development of public administration in the two city-states under the one country, two systems framework. Because research in an academic field is the primary source of knowledge and theory development within that field, the quality and character of research bear significantly on that 1

2 field s status as a discipline or profession (White and Adams 1994, xiii). However, the nature of public administration research in Hong Kong and Macau has rarely been studied, leaving unanswered questions such as: What topics are of interest to scholars who study public administration in Hong Kong and Macau? What purposes do these studies serve and what methodologies do they employ? Has public administration research reflected domestic policy debates in the two city-states? If the answer is affirmative, then what are the noteworthy issues? This paper will address those questions. Data We adopted different methods to collect data on public administration research in Hong Kong and Macau because the majority of research in the two city-states is written in different languages (English in Hong Kong and Chinese in Macau) and therefore published in different sources. The data on public administration in Hong Kong were collected from the ISI s Web of Science (WOS) Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), a widely recognized database that indexes publication documents including articles, bibliography, book reviews, editorial material, letters, abstracts and notes (Corley and Sabharwal 2010). We used Hong Kong as the topic to search all relevant articles published in the SSCI database from 1999 to A total of 4,778 results were found. We selected 54 articles published under the subject area of public administration, 62 articles published under political science, 124 articles published under area studies and 16 articles under Asian studies. We reviewed these articles and excluded those with irrelevant themes to collect 113 articles published in 41 journals (see Table 1). ---Table 1 about here--- 2

3 We used the same method to search publications on public administration in Macau but obtained only 9 results, 4 of which overlapped with the articles from Hong Kong because they were comparative studies which included both city-states. The results of our search demonstrated that the majority of studies on public administration in Macau are not published in English journals, so we switched our focus to literature written in Chinese. We collected our data from Public Administration in Macau (in Portuguese, Revista de Administração Pública de Macau Número), a quarterly journal sponsored and overseen by the Bureau of Administration and Public Service of Macau SAR (Direcção dos Serviços de Administração e Função Pública, SAFP). According to the SAFP, the journal is a key source for understanding the development of public administration in Macau. It contains scholarly articles, practitioners notes, and symposium pieces, keynote speeches of conferences held in Macau, published in both Portuguese and Chinese. We collected a total of 223 such studies published during the period Given that the number of articles in English is too small to support effective coding and to make a significant difference in our findings, we did not include the 9 SSCI articles in this study. We coded the collected articles according to the questions listed in the Introduction. The coding aims to achieve two general objectives, as described in a study by Houston and Delevan (1994, 127) on the nature of public administration research in the United States. The first objective is to capture general characteristics of the article and the author, such as topics studied, research trends, number of authors, university and department affiliation of authors, and similar factors. The second objective is to assess the contributions made by these studies to the development of a theoretically sound and useful body of knowledge in the discipline. Coding variables include each article s major purpose, theoretical framework, methodology employed, time span, and research style. 3

4 Public Administration Research in Hong Kong and Macau We start by examining what topics are of interest to those researchers who study public administration in the two city-states. Table 2 shows that studies of both city-states overwhelmingly focus on the region s political development under the framework of one country, two systems. About one third (29.2%, 33 out of 113) of the studies in Hong Kong discuss the problems of the Basic Law system and democratization in the region, whereas a similar portion (28.3%, 63 out of 223) of publications in Macau focuses on localization of the legal system. Popular but less frequently discussed topics in both regions include social welfare policies, management reforms, regional development, and challenges of governance in a changing political context. In contrast, privatization, environmental policies and disaster management are the least frequently discussed topics. There is a surprising lack of journal articles on environmental policies in the two city-states; only one article analyzes crossborder environmental problems in Hong Kong, which is categorized under the topic of regional cooperation. ---Table 2 about here--- Table 3 and 4 compare the author profiles of the collected articles. Table 3 shows that more than half of the authors are local researchers, meaning they were based in the territory at the time they produced the articles (66% in Hong Kong and 65% in Macau). One noteworthy difference is that public administration in Hong Kong has triggered a wider international discussion than the same topic in Macau. Researchers based in Macau, Hong Kong and Mainland China conducted most of the studies of Macau, while the authors in the Hong Kong 4

5 database have a more international background and come from the US, the UK and various European countries. The number of comparative studies in the two databases illustrates this difference. Figure 1 shows that comparative studies constitute only 10% of the articles on Macau, but about 30% of those on Hong Kong. Moreover, in these comparative studies, Hong Kong s system is usually compared to those of other East Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Japan, whereas Macau s system is often compared to those of Mainland China and Hong Kong. ---Table 3 & Figure 1 about here--- Table 4 shows that most scholars who study public administration in Hong Kong and Macau are primarily based in departments of public administration, public affairs, political science, international relations, law, and social sciences. There are scholars in both databases from departments of business administration, environmental management, economics, education, geography, and journalism. The profiles of the authors show that public administration in the two city-states is a topic in which researchers from various disciplines are interested. ---Table 3 & 4 about here--- Figure 2 and 3 indicate the major features of research trends during the period Figure 2 shows that scholars have shown consistent interest in democratization in Hong Kong during these eleven years. The number of such studies proliferated shortly after Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty, but has declined slightly since In the mid-2000s scholars began to give more attention to Hong Kong s management reform and development issues. More recently, especially in the past three years ( ), the focus of studies has 5

6 shifted to the government s management capacity and performance, relationship with the press, and challenges in maintaining effective governance. By comparison, the trend in Macau research is rather unclear. Figure 3 shows no clear change in research focus compared to what can be observed in the case of Hong Kong. Throughout the eleven years, social policies, management reform, regional development, human resource management and the legal system in Macau have been the focus of research. Since 2004 there have been a growing number of studies that aim to review the overall performance of the SAR government and discuss regional cooperation between Macau and neighboring areas. ---Figure 2 & 3 about here--- Figure 4 summarizes the major aims of the published articles. The overall trend is that public administration research in both Hong Kong and Macau is dominated by descriptive studies that address questions of what, where, when, and how. Less frequent are studies designed to explore new topics and generate new ideas. Still less frequent are studies aiming at explaining why, building and/or testing theories (Babbie 2002). As Figure 4 shows, among a total of 113 articles on Hong Kong, more than a half (58%) are descriptive, 34 per cent are exploratory, and 8 per cent are explanatory. This finding is more pronounced in the literature on Macau. Two hundred and one (90%) out of the 223 publications are descriptive studies. Exploratory (13 out of 223) and explanatory (9 out of 223) studies account for less than 10% of the articles. ---Figure 4 about here--- 6

7 As regards the style of the papers, argumentation is a predominant style adopted by the published articles on both city-states. Argumentation essays account for 43% of the articles on Hong Kong (especially popular in studies on issues of democratization) and 38% of the articles on Macau. Nonetheless, the style of research in the two city-states has a striking difference. As Figure 5 shows, empirical studies constitute the majority (57%) of public administration research in Hong Kong, whereas such studies account for only 8% of the literature in Macau. It is of note that we categorized public administration research in Macau into four styles, namely argumentation, empirical studies, phenomenal description, and practitioners notes for the key reason that 35% of the publications in Macau are contributed by those who serve in government organizations or professional associations. Around 20% of the literature, although contributed by academicians, aims to simply introduce a system or policy brief without arguments and analysis. It is therefore meaningless to code these two groups of studies strictly according to the protocol of academic journal articles. The comparison in Figure 5 implies that studies of public administration in Hong Kong are more rigorous in regard to research focus and theory building. ---Figure 5 about here--- Figure 6 addresses the theoretical perspective adopted by each article. Forty-seven per cent of the articles on public administration in Hong Kong discussed theoretical frameworks or were designed to provide a theoretical perspective through literature review. It is difficult to pinpoint a dominant theoretical perspective adopted across topics, yet some theoretical frameworks are popular for studies on the same topic, for example, regulatory states and welfare states are more frequently used in studies on government regulation and social polices than other theories. In contrast, articles on public administration in Macau were 7

8 greatly lacking in sound theoretical discussions. Only 19 out of the 223 (19%) articles discussed theoretical frameworks. ---Figure 6 about here--- Table 5 and Figure 7 summarize the methodologies adopted by these articles. In general, a review of secondary sources is the major method adopted by studies that relied on a single research method. A small number of studies employed qualitative methods and an even smaller number employed quantitative analytical technique. As Figure 5 and Figure 6 show, 100 (89%) out of the 113 articles relied on a single method to study public administration in Hong Kong. Among these studies, seventy-eight (78%) developed their argument by reviewing secondary sources. Fourteen articles (14%) employed qualitative methods such as case study, survey, field observation and interviews. Eight articles (8%) employed quantitative methods, including univariate analysis (3 articles), bivariate analysis (2 articles), multivariate analysis (2 articles), and difference-in-difference approach (1 article). In addition, 13 (11%) out of the 113 articles adopted a combined research method. Nine of them combined qualitative methods with a review of secondary sources. Two employed both qualitative and quantitative analysis, and an additional two combined quantitative methods with a review of secondary sources. Studies of public administration in Macau are much less rigorous than the studies in Hong Kong in terms of the methodologies used. One finding in our coding is that 70 (31%) of the 233 articles did not provide any information on research methods and data sources. Among the remaining 153 articles, 151 employed a single method and only 2 combined more than one method. One hundred and forty-eight out of the 151 articles (98%) depended on a review of secondary sources. Two articles employed qualitative methods to collect and analyze 8

9 primary data. Only one paper clearly explained how it used a quantitative method (univariate analysis) to examine variables affecting self-efficacy of civil servants in Macau. ---Table 5 & Figure 7 about here--- A comparison of the time spans in the articles further illustrates the methodological rigor of these studies. Figure 8 shows that 51 (45%) out of the 113 articles in Hong Kong clearly indicate the duration period of the research. Among these articles, 25 (21%) are longitudinal studies that observe the same phenomena over five years and six (5%) are longitudinal studies of more than two years but fewer than five. Sixteen articles (14%) are cross-sectional studies that involve observations of a sample, or cross section, of a population or phenomenon made at one point in time (Babbie 2002, 97). Five studies adopted time series analysis, a method of observing the same phenomenon in regular periods. By comparison, less attention is paid to time span in studies of public administration in Macau. As Figure 8 shows, 202 (91%) out of the 223 articles do not indicate clearly the time span of the research. A total of 21 articles (9%) provide a clear statement of the time span. Fourteen articles are longitudinal studies over 5 years (6%), while longitudinal studies lasting fewer than 5 years, time series, and cross-sectional studies account respectively for only 1% of the articles. Public Administration in Hong Kong and Macau: Policy Debates The Basic Law System 9

10 A critical issue arising from the public administration studies in Hong Kong and Macau is whether the one country, two systems experiment is working, and in particular, whether the Basic Law system could maintain effective governance during political transition. About one third of the studies in Hong Kong and Macau argue that the experiment of one country, two systems has given rise to challenges in governing. In Hong Kong, the problem of greatest concern and significance since the implementation of Basic Law is the creation of tensions between the legislature and the executive branch that have seriously weakened the regime s stability and inhibited its capacity to govern (Scott 2000; Canning 2001; William 2001; Pepper 2000; Holliday et al. 2004; Zhang 2009). By comparison, in Macau the pressing need is major codifications and localization of the territory s legal system after the implementation of the Basic Law system (He 2008; Lou 2009; Luo 2009; Li 2009; Zhao 2005; Mi 1999; Zhao and Leng 2000). In both city-states, the main purpose of the Basic Law is to maintain stability during the political transition. In Hong Kong s situation, this is demonstrated in the intention to prolong the region s tradition of maintaining a strong executive-led government headed by the Chief Executive. Meanwhile, since democratization of the legislature had already begun during the final years of the last British governor, Chris Pattern, the Basic Law also gives the Legislative Council more popular representation through the process of a slow expansion of directly elected members. Yet in order to maintain the executive-led nature of the system, the Basic Law restricts the power of the Legislative Council in order to prevent it from becoming as powerful as the chief executive. For example, most government policies do not need the approval of the legislature unless they involve changing laws and appropriations. The power arrangements set by the Basic Law, however, lead, according to some accounts, to a disarticulation of Hong Kong s political system (Scott 2000). Unlike the British governors, the SAR Chief Executive no longer has personal control over the legislature. He is 10

11 also deprived of a workable majority in the Legislative Council to pursue major political and policy goals because, under the Basic Law system, the Chief Executive cannot be affiliated with a political party. The Chief Executive could appoint senior civil servants (i.e., heads of bureaus and departments) as members of the Executive Council, yet the civil service bureaucracy, who held a monopoly on the day-to-day formulation and implementation of public policy, could resist the proposals made by the executive councilors. As a result, the real power of the political chief executive is surprisingly weak. As Zhang (2009, 315) indicates, the present political system in Hong Kong only has the pretense, but not the substance, of an executive-led system. Scott (2000) points out that, under the Basic Law system, the executive, the legislative, and the chief executive bodies ceased to be as effectively coordinated as before. Each of these political bodies pursues their own agendas, which consequently impedes the coherence of post-handover politics and smooth implementation of public policy. The Macau SAR government faces different problems in maintaining effective governance under one country, two systems. Macau has a different legal tradition than does Hong Kong, which has adopted a common law system, the most distinguishing hallmark of which is reliance on a system of case precedent, not restricted to judicial decisions generated within any single jurisdiction, but relying on case law from all jurisdictions throughout the common law world. Under this system, each case serves as a precedent for subsequent cases. Macau, however, has adopted the continental law system, under which the laws are written into a collection, codified, and, in short, not determined by judges (Zhuang 2009). Hence, in Macau, a crucial task during the political transition period was to localize the pre-handover legal and judicial system. The localization issues mainly include the training of legal experts and judges to replace Portuguese expatriates and translation of the written laws and decrees into Chinese (Edmonds and Yee 1999, 812; Luo 2009). 11

12 The Basic Law stipulates that both Chinese and Portuguese are official languages in Macau s legal and judicial system. Some scholars argue that an effective localization of the legal and judicial system can only be implemented if Chinese is properly strengthened in these spheres. Emphasizing the double-language legislation prevents outstanding talents who have received domestic or overseas education but know little Portuguese from serving in the legal and judicial system. In addition, such a system has implementation problems in a territory where more than 95% of Macau s population consists of native Chinese speakers. For example, Zhu (2007) argues that Article 87 of Macau Basic Law stipulates that judges should be selected based on their professional qualifications. Foreigners can also be employed if they are professionally qualified. This stipulation actually restricts the use of Chinese as an official language in judicial trials because most foreign judges do not understand Chinese. However, such stipulations deprive litigants of the right to know in trials, because most litigants understand little Portuguese. The rebuttal viewpoint is that the double-language legislation should be promoted and the need for reform requires the training of talents who know both Chinese and Portuguese. Guan (2006) argues that since Macau s legal system is derived from the Portuguese system, radical changes in the legal system, even a simple literal translation of the Portuguese legal texts into Chinese, may damage the established legal traditions preserved for a century in Macau. The double-language legislation takes into consideration the benefit of the Portuguese descendants living in Macau and is an expression of Macau s distinctive local cultural features. In this regard, the use of Portuguese in the legal system is important to guarantee the equal rights of Macau s residents without discrimination. Localization of the legal system also includes revising and tailoring Macau s major codification in accordance with the Basic Law. By 1999 the localization of Macau s five major codifications namely, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code, the Civil Procedure 12

13 Code, the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code and a number of important decrees such as the Decree of Asset Registration was completed. Studies in our database discuss a wide range of issues on the design and implementation of these codifications, laws and decrees during the ten years after the handover. Examples abound and include interpreting the major features of the localized codifications (Jiang 1999; He 2008; Su 2002; Deng 2007), making comparisons with the same laws implemented in Portugal or Mainland China (Zeng 1999; He 2007; Liu and Zhu 2002), and examining values underlying the laws (Wang 2006; Zhao 2007). Democratization Democratization is a hot topic in studies of public administration in Hong Kong but attracts little attention in Macau. In the case of Hong Kong, many scholars argue that the electoral system established under the Basic Law severely weakens the competitive edge of the democrats in the Legislative Council and impedes democratization in Hong Kong (Ma 2001; Lau and Kuan 2000 & 2002; Cheng 2001; So 2000; Ma and Choy 1999; Ho 1999; Kwok 2006; Sing 2009). According to the Basic Law, members of the Legislative Council are elected by a proportional representation system. Under this system, most members of the Legislative Council are chosen in indirect elections by functional constituencies, professional groups, or the Election Committee, whereas the number of members directly elected by the people constitutes only one third of the seats in 1998, with a gradual growth to half of the seats in Such electoral rules have led to a new balance of power among major political parties in Hong Kong the pro-china parties can obtain more seats than the pro-democracy parties. The election results of the 1 st Legislature Council in 1998, 2 nd in 2000, 3 rd in 2004 and 4 th in 2008 show that the pro-democracy parties have faced profound challenges to 13

14 winning the majority seats of the Legislative Council and promoting democratization in Hong Kong (Ma 2001). In addition, the electoral system leads to the fragmentation of the legislature and thus constrains its capacity to formulate alternative policies. The large number of functional constituency and professional group seats combined with those allocated to the Election Committee prevents any party with widespread general popularity from obtaining a legislative majority. Instead, the major political parties all become sizable minorities that exercises veto power. Either the functional group or the direct election/election committee group can still veto any bill, amendment, or motion, which receives support from a majority of the members of the Legislature Council. The ultimate decision rests, as always, in the hands of the executive branch and the sovereign master in Beijing. Even though the number of directly elected seats has increased gradually over time, with a weakened legislature it is still difficult for popular demands to be effectively translated into government policies. By contrast, public administration studies in Macau are less enthusiastic in discussing democratization issues. One important reason for this is that in Macau, it is the social organizations (shetuan) rather than the political parties that play a dominant role in political affairs (i.e., the Chinese Chamber of Commerce). Party politics is absent in Macau. Instead, since the handover, the Macau SAR government relies on the social organizations to maintain effective governance, which consequently strengthens the role of the social organizations in political participation and policy advisory. The social organizations do not compete for political power through election, however, but tend to cooperate with the government in order to gain protection of the interests of the groups they represent (Lou 2004 & 2009). In this regard, Macau s post-handover politics can be perceived as a strong state corporatism under which the state-society relationship is not confrontation, but cooperation (Pan 2009). 14

15 A typical example is the electoral system. Macau has also adopted a proportional representation system to elect members of the Legislative Council. Most members are indirectly elected by social organizations on the basis of functional constituencies (Lin 2008; Lou 2006). The social organizations also have influence on direct election of the members of the Legislative Council. According to the Basic Law, the candidates directly elected by popular votes must be nominated by a Nomination Committee, which is usually supported by powerful social organizations. In addition, most members of the Election Committee that elects the Chief Executive of Macau are also indirectly elected by social organizations that represent different functional constituencies. Delegates of the Election Committee must come from a specific functional constituency and must be supported by a social organization that satisfies certain voting qualifications within the constituency. As Lou (2006, 475) says, Macau s post-handover politics is by nature a politics of the social organizations, which has two main features: the absence of political associations and a system of Election/Nomination Committees supported by powerful social organizations. Transformation Path Studies show that while Hong Kong is in transition from an administrative state to a neoadministrative state that has politicized the top levels of the civil service, the administrative state is just beginning to take shape in Macau. Hong Kong has long been depicted as an administrative state in which the civil service is insulated from political and societal forces and enjoys a stable pattern of growth in rewards and status, but this bureaucratic model came into question after 1997 when the SAR governments failed to respond efficiently to a series of social and economic problems. Consequently, there are growing demands for a more economical, accountable, and responsive civil service as well as a more effective and 15

16 accountable political executive. The then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa attempted to respond to these demands by introducing a new accountability system in 2002 (the Principal Official Accountability System) (Chan 2003). Under this system, all policy secretaries are now politically appointed and are expected to be responsible for their policy. These political officials will be directly accountable to the Chief Executive and are in charge of political work. In 2008, the current Chief Executive Donald Tsang introduced two more layers of political appointees under the Principal Official Accountability System to help strengthen the political tiers (Cheung 2009; Lam 2009). These moves, as Chan (2003, 413) points out, restrict Hong Kong s civil service to an assisting or subsidiary role, thus heralding the end of the domination of the civil service on Hong Kong s political stage. A team of political leadership headed by the Chief Executive and manned by full-time politicians displaces the civil servants to take center stage in Hong Kong. In contrast, Macau is steering towards an administrative state. The Chief Executive of Macau is more powerful than his counterpart in Hong Kong. He is not only the head of the government, but also the highest officer of the special administrative region. He has the power to nominate some members of the Legislative Council, reject the bills approved by the Legislative Council and even dismiss the Legislative Council. Although the Chief Executive of Macau is not affiliated with a specific political association or social organization, he could still obtain the support of the majority legislature under the nomination system. As such, Macau has a de facto strong executive-led government (Zhan 2005; Wang 2005). The executive-led political system provides an institutional guarantee to maintain sociopolitical stability and promote economic development (Wang 2005; Zhuang 2009; Wu and Lin 2009). After the handover, the central focus of the first Macau SAR government was to stimulate the stagnating economy. In 2002, the government liberalized its pillar industry, gambling, in order to increase economic vitality. Its main intent was to break the monopolist 16

17 operation of casinos, expand the right to manage casinos, and introduce competition to the gambling industry. This measure has successfully increased the casino managers incentives to improve services and enlarge investments. The rapid growth of the gambling industry has consequently led to the revival of a prosperous tourism industry and a recovery of the entire economy (Monteiro 2009; Pessanha 2007). The successful economic transition illustrates that the Macau SAR government, managed by a group of administrative elites, has high public credibility and governing authority. An administrative state is nascent. Conclusion This article examines the quality, content, and character, of public administration studies in Hong Kong and Macau published over the past decade. It demonstrates several features of the published articles: First, generally speaking, the quality of studies in Hong Kong is better than those in Macau because they are more rigorous in the methodologies employed and more engaged in testing and building theories. Second, in both Hong Kong and Macau, a significant portion of studies is descriptive. This implies that studies on public administration in Hong Kong and Macau are largely at the phase of describing the problems, phenomena, and observations. More exploratory and explanatory studies are needed to consider new ideas and build theories in the field. Third, there is a severe lack of empirical studies on public administration in Macau, which impedes better understanding of scenarios in the real world. Although practitioners contribute one third of the articles in Macau, their studies mainly describe government structure, policies and systems. They are barely engaged in analyzing the problems caused by government policies and, more importantly, in explaining the gap between theory and practice. Fourth, public administration articles in Macau create a relatively closed discussion. They tend not to compare Macau s domestic problems with 17

18 those of other East Asian countries/regions (except Hong Kong). The lack of comparative studies published in English journals prevents exchange of ideas in the field, such as what lessons can be learned from Macau s experience as a transitional economy in an East Asian cultural background. This paper also illustrates three critical issues central to the discussion of public administration in Hong Kong and Macau over the past decade. It shows that the same experiment of one country, two systems has resulted in different obstacles to effective governance in the two SARs, which pushed them to adopt different solutions and take different transitional trajectories. In fact, Hong Kong and Macau started from different historical points in experimenting with one country, two systems. By 1997 Hong Kong had developed a relatively advanced capitalist industrial system and is ranked as one of the world s most liberalized economic and competitive regions. In this context, since the handover the citizens of Hong Kong stress the continuity of the merits of the previous system. In contrast, the Portugese colonial government in Macau before the handover had performed badly. When Macau returned to China, the territory faced serious socioeconomic problems that required the government to take immediate action. Accordingly, citizens of Macau expect to see changes from the previous system. As a result, a small governing problem in Hong Kong may become a significant political issue, whereas a small achievement in Macau may be considered a great success (Qi 2005, 911). The points of departure and institutional legacies of the two city-states determine the paths of their post-handover transition under the same one country, two systems principle. Hong Kong s disarticulated and fractured political system after the handover requires the Chief Executive to enforce a top-down politicization of the highest levels of the civil service in order to increase coherence in policy implementation. Yet under the framework of the Basic Law, such measures are only an expedient remedy within the existing power structure and 18

19 make no fundamental changes to bureaucratic traditions of rule (Painter 2005). In Macau, a more traditional executive-led system is favored as it ensures effective coordination between the executive and the legislature and establishes trust between the Macau SAR government and the Chinese central government (Zhuang 2009). With no need to worry about quarrelling with the Legislative Council, the Chief Executive and his civil service bureaucracy can concentrate their efforts on implementing reforms that promote good governance beneficial to the Macau people. Hence, the executive-led political system is viewed as a political advantage in Macau s development and an essential part of the emerging Macau Model (Qi 2005). Ten years after the reversion of the two city-states, the one formula instituted by Beijing has led to two contrastingly different experiences in Hong Kong and Macau. Divergences are more profound than convergences. References Babbie, Earl The Basics of Social Research (2 nd edition). Wadsworth: Thomson Learning. Canning, Craig Hong Kong: Still One Country, Two Systems? Current History 100 (647): Chan, Hon S The Civil Service Under One Country, Two Systems: The Cases of Hong Kong and the People s Republic of China. Public Administration Review 63(4): Cheng Joseph Elections and Political Parties in Hong Kong s Political Development. Journal of Contemporary Asia 31(3): Cheung, Chor-yung Public Service Neutrality in Hong Kong: Problems and Prospects. The Australian Journal of Public Administration 68(1):

20 Corley, Elizabeth and Meghna Sabharwal Scholarly Collaboration and Productivity Patterns in Public Administration: Analysing Recent Trends. Public Administration 88(3): Deng Darong Evolution and Development of Government Procurement Legal System in Macau. Public Administration in Macau 1(20): Guan, Guanxiong The Effects of Chinese and Portuguese Legal Text in Double- Language Legislation in Macau. Public Administration in Macau 1(19): He, Yongyang A Comparison on the Adoption System between the Mainland China and Macau. Public Administration in Macau, 1 (16): He, Zhiyuan A Comparison on the Legal System of Obligatory Money Punishment Between the Civil Code of Macau and the Civil Code of Portugal. Public Administration in Macau 4 (20): Implementation Procedure System of the Macau Civil Procedure Code. Public Administration in Macau 2(21): Ho, Karl. The Hong Kong Legislative Election of Electoral Studies 18: Holliday, Ian, Ma Ngok and Ray Yep. After 1997: The Dialectics of Hong Kong Dependence. Journal of Contemporary Asia 34(2): Houston, David and Sybil Delevan Public Administration Research: An Assessment of Journal Publications. In Research in Public Administration: Reflections on Theory and Practice, edited by Jay White and Guy Adams. California: Sage Publications. Jiang, Enci Localization of the Commercial Code of Macau and Modernization. Public Administration in Macau 3(12):

21 Kwok, Rowena Functional Representation in Hong Kong s Legislature. Asian Survey 46(3): Lam, Jermain Political Accountability in Hong Kong: Myth or Reality? The Australian Journal of Public Administration 68 (1): Lau, Siu-kai and Hsin-chi Kwan Partial Democratization, Foundation Moment and Political Parties in Hong Kong. The China Quarterly 163: Hong Kong s Stunted Political Party System. The China Quarterly 172: Li, Lina Responding to the New Situation, Using A Development Perspective to Examine the Implementation of the Basic Law. Public Administration in Macau 4(22): Liu, Fudong and Xuezhong Zhu A Comparative Study of the Trademark Law System between the Mainland China and Macau. Public Administration in Macau, 1 (15): Lou, Shenghua Features of Macau s Corporatism System. Public Administration in Macau 3(17): Social Impacts of the Rapid Development of the Gambling Industry and Transformation of Government Management. Public Administration in Macau 3(20): Institution Building and Incremental Transformation: Development of Macau Electoral System After the Handover. Public Administration in Macau 4(22):

22 Luo, Weijian Development of Codifications in Macau Special Administrative Region: Rule of Law and Improvement of the Legal System in Macau. Public Administration in Macau 4(22): Ma, Ngok The Decline of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong: The Second Legislative Election in the HKSAR. Asian Survey 41(4): Ma, Ngok and Chi-Keung Choy The Evolution of the Electoral System and Party Politics in Hong Kong. Issues & Studies 35(1): Mi, Jian Challenges of Macau s Legal System Under the One Country, Two Systems Principle. Public Administration in Macau 4 (12): Monteiro, Antonio Tourism Market in Macau Over the Past Ten Years. Public Administration in Macau 2 (22): Painter, Martin Transforming the Administrative State: Reform in Hong Kong and the Future of the Developmental State. Public Administration Review 65(3): Pan, Guanjin Formulation of Strong State Corporatism: Evolution of Social Organizations in Macau and Strengthening of Their Political Participation Function Over the Past Ten Years. Public Administration in Macau 4 (22): Pepper, Suzanne Elections, Political Change and Basic Law Government: The Hong Kong System in Search of A Political Form. The China Quarterly 162: Pessanha, Luis Lucky Lottery and Investment Enlargement in Macau. Public Administration in Macau 3 (20):

23 Qi, Pengfei Economic Advantages, Political Advantages of the New Macau and the Macau Model Under One Country, Two Systems. Public Administration in Macau 3(18): Scott, Ian The Disarticulation of Hong Kong s Post-Handover Political System. The China Journal 43: Sing, Ming Hong Kong s Democrats Hold Their Own. Journal of Democracy 20(1): So, Alvin Hong Kong s Problematic Democratic Transition: Power Dependency or Business Hegemony? The Journal of Asian Studies 59(2): Su, Zhexian Administrative Letigation System in Macau Special Administrative Region. Public Administration in Macau 1(15): Wang, Lei The Value of Harmony underlying the Macau Basic Law. Public Administration in Macau, 3 (19): Wang, Yu Deepening and Consolidating the Executive-Led Political System. Public Administration in Macau 3(18): White, Jay and Guy B. Adams Research in Public Administration: Reflections on Theory and Practice. California: Sage Publications. William, Overholt Hong Kong: The Perils of Semidemocracy. Journal of Democracy 12(4): Wu, Zhiliang and Yuan Lin Past and Future of the Macau Special Administrative Region In Ten Years: Economic and Political Perspectives. Public Administration in Macau 4(22):

24 Zeng, Zhongshu The Contradictions between Macau s Legal System and the Mainland s System. Public Administration in Macau, 1 (12): Zhan, Zhongyuan. Analysis and Forecast of the Current Governance Model of Macau Special Administrative Region. Public Administration in Macau 3 (18): Zhang, Baohui Political Paralysis of the Basic Law Regime and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Hong Kong. Asian Survey 49(2): Zhao, Guoqiang Values underlying the Criminal Policies in a Harmonious Society: Reflections on Macau s Criminal Policies. Public Administration in Macau, 1 (20): Zhao, Xiangyang An Important Legal Measure of Implementing the Basic Law of Macau: The Electoral Law of the Chief Executive of Macau Special Administrative Region. Public Administration in Macau 1 (18): Zhao, Yanfang and Tiexun Leng Past and Future of the Work in Macau s Legal Field. Public Administration in Macau 4 (13): Zhu, Lin The Role of Chinese in Macau s Judicial Trial System: The Perspective of Basic Rights. Public Administration in Macau 1(20): Zhuang, Jinfeng The Content of the Macau Model Under One Country, Two Systems. Public Administration in Macau 4(22):

25 Table 1: Journals that Published Articles on Public Administration in Hong Kong No. Journal Number of Articles 1 Issues & Studies 13 2 The China Quarterly 12 3 Asian Survey 9 4 The Pacific Review 5 5 Social Policy and Administration 5 6 International Review of Administrative Sciences 4 7 Public Administration and Development 4 8 Public Administration Review 4 9 The Policy Press 4 10 The China Review 4 11 The Journal of Contemporary Asia 4 12 The Australian Journal of Public Administration 3 13 Government & Opposition 3 14 Journal of Democracy 3 15 Current History 3 16 Public Management Review 2 17 Contemporary Economic Policy 2 18 Journal of Social Policy 2 19 Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 2 20 Governance 2 21 Environment and Planning 2 22 Electoral Studies 2 23 The Political Studies 1 24 Administration & Society 1 25 Problems of Post-Communism 1 26 Modern Asian Studies 1 27 Political Psychology 1 28 The Journal of Asian Studies 1 29 The China Journal 1 30 The International Journal of Conflict Management 1 31 Japanese Journal of Political Science 1 32 Asian Journal of Social Science 1 33 Public Choice 1 34 Critical Asian Studies 1 35 Modern China 1 36 Party Politics 1 37 Political Geography 1 38 Review of International Political Economy 1 39 International Journal of Press/Politics 1 40 Political Quarterly 1 41 The Analysis of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1 25

26 Table 2: Topics of Public Administration Researches in Hong Kong and Macau Topics Hong Kong Macau No. % No. % Accountability Collaboration/coordination/networking Privatization Corruption Development Disaster management E-government Environmental policy Foreign policy Governance Human resource management Management reform Performance management Public finance Regulation Social policy Political system development Legal affairs Media Identity Other Total

27 Table 3: Country Bases of Authors (At the Time the Article Was Published) Hong Kong Macau Countries Number of the Author Countries Number of the Author Hong Kong 68 Macau 118 U.S. 13 Hong Kong 7 UK 7 Mainland China 44 Canada 3 Taiwan 5 Taiwan 3 Portugal 7 Australia 2 UK 1 Japan 2 Singapore 1 Mainland 1 China Northern 1 Ireland Portugal 1 India 1 Total 103 Total

28 Figure 1: Ratio of Comparative Studies in Hong Kong and Macau 28

29 Table 4: Department of Authors (At the Time the Article Was Published) Hong Kong Macau Department/School Number of Author Number of Author Pub.adm/affairs/policy/government Political science/intel relation 24 8 Social Science Planning/development 2 14 Business adm/management 7 4 Environment 1 2 Economics 3 9 Education 1 5 Public Health 1 3 Geography 2 42 Journalism 4 1 Others Total

30 Figure 2: Study Trend in Hong Kong in Terms of Distribution of Topics ( ) 30

31 Figure 3: Study Trend in Macau in Terms of Distribution of Topics ( ) 31

32 Figure 4: Purposes of the Collected Articles 32

33 Figure 5: Style of the Collected Articles 33

34 Figure 6: Articles with Theoretical Discussion 34

35 Single method Combine method Table 5: Methodologies Employed by the Collected Articles Method No. (Hong Kong) No. (Macau) Review of secondary sources 78 1 Qualitative method 14 2 Quantitative method Total Review of secondary 9 1 sources/qualitative Review of secondary 2 1 sources/quantitative Qualitative/Quantitative 2 0 Total 13 2 No clear statement of method 0 70 Total

36 Figure 7: Method Employed by Studies Using Single Method 36

37 Figure 8: Time Span of the Collected Articles 37