A Prolegomenon to the Study of the Role of Rhetoric in the Garbage-Can Policy Process: The Case of Hong Kong's Positive Non-Interventionism

This article analyzes the Hong Kong government's policy making process from the garbage-can perspective. Despite the official claim that the principle of positive non-interventionism has been consistently adhered to, Hong Kong policy makers have been strategically employing positive non-interventionism as rhetoric in legitimizing what they choose to do or not to do in an ad-hoc manner. As a result, be it under colonial rule or Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong has been governed like an “organized anarchy.” Indeed, playing with the rhetoric of positive non-interventionism has become the identity of Hong Kong policy makers. This argument is illustrated with a review of Hong Kong's industrial policy making from the pre-war period to the present.