This thesis adopts an organizational approach to evaluate the development of political parties in Hong Kong. Existing studies on Hong Kong's political parties mainly focus on the political environment affecting party development and the electoral success of particular parties. They ignore parties' adaptations to the environment, an important process for their development. Only by looking within party organization can we have better understanding of party development. Using the Hong Kong Democratic Party (DP) as a case study, this thesis aims at studying the party's internal work and exploring the relationship between party organization and the environment. Moreover, most Hong Kong observers are concerned about the DP's development after 1997 since the Chinese Government threatens its su...[ Read more ]

This thesis adopts an organizational approach to evaluate the development of political parties in Hong Kong. Existing studies on Hong Kong's political parties mainly focus on the political environment affecting party development and the electoral success of particular parties. They ignore parties' adaptations to the environment, an important process for their development. Only by looking within party organization can we have better understanding of party development. Using the Hong Kong Democratic Party (DP) as a case study, this thesis aims at studying the party's internal work and exploring the relationship between party organization and the environment. Moreover, most Hong Kong observers are concerned about the DP's development after 1997 since the Chinese Government threatens its survival. This study illustrates that since its formation in 1994, the DP has been adapting to the environment for its survival prospect after 1997.

As centralization and decentralization are the vital questions in a party organization, this study proposes four elements, namely (1) electoral process; (2) policy making and implementation; (3) personnel management; (4) fiscal policy, to investigate the DP's internal structure. The organization of the DP represents the adaptation to four environmental factors, namely (1) electoral law; (2) party competition; (3) diversity of district characteristics; (4) financial sources. The thesis will illustrate how these environmental factors influence the DP's organization. It will conclude that in order to survive after 1997, the DP's organization has to change because of the China factor. Its organizational adaptation is dependent on its attitude toward the Chinese government.