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Social Sciences: A Foundation Course

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SOSC A101 Social Sciences: A Foundation Course
Assignment 2

Question: a What is a political party? b ‘Political parties are powerless in Hong Kong because they cannot form government and make policies.’ Discuss.

Student name: Lam Tsz Ho
Student no: S11421101

Introduction

In this year, Occupy Central arouses a lot of controversies. It is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to “international standards”. Many people said …show more content…

There are three major political parties, Democratic Party, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, and Liberal Party. These parties use their impacts in Legislative Council to make their proposals in practice. Also, they help to recruit political leaders, train political elites and aggregate political interests. Besides, they mobilize people to participate in politics and public affairs. For example, the protest in 1 July is held by political parties.

Hong Kong now is “executive-dominant” system.

‘The chief executive has a superior constitutional status to other branches of the government. The CE is elected by an Election Committee of 800 people and thus has authority independent from the legislature.’ #4

The Election Committee is formed by:

‘Four sectors which are sub-divided into 38 subsectors. Out of these 38 subsectors,
(a) EC members of 35 subsectors are elected by voters in the subsectors at the subsector ordinary elections;
(b) the Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) and Members of the Legislative Council (“LegCo”) are ex-officio members of the EC and constitute respectively the NPC subsector and the LegCo subsector; and
(c) the Religious subsector: Members are returned to the EC by way of nomination by the six designated bodies of the subsector.’#5

In the complicated selection of Election Committee, political parties have

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