Stages of Hong Kong’s democratic movement
| Author | Benny Yiu-ting Tai |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891118815777 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
Stages of Hong Kong’s
democratic movement
Benny Yiu-ting Tai
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Abstract
Bill Moyer observed that there are eight stages in a social movement: seeming normal, exposing
injustice, ripening conditions, taking off, losing heart, winning the majority, reaping success and
consolidating achievement. For more than 30 years, Hong Kong people have been striving for
democracy. Applying Moyer’s model, Hong Kong should be now at a stage close to reaching its
ultimate goal of establishing a genuine democratic system in the territory after years of work,
especially the triggering event in September 2014 and the occupation during the Umbrella
Movement. However, Moyer’s model cannot be mechanically applied to the case of Hong Kong in
light of the unique situation faced by Hong Kong people. Hong Kong’s authoritarian sovereign
holds the final key to Hong Kong’s door to democracy. Unless there is a significant shift in the
balance of powers in the Chinese polity, Hong Kong’s democracy may be so near and yet so far.
Keywords
China’s future, civil disobedience, democratic movement, Hong Kong, Umbrella Movement,
universal suffrage
Hong Kong people have been striving for democracy for more than 30 years. The democratic
movement began in the 1980s while Hong Kong was still under British colonial rule, and continues
after 1997 as a special administrative region under the Chinese sovereignty. The latest attempt was
the Umbrella Movement in 2014, when thousands of people occupied the main streets of Hong
Kong for 79 days; yet there is still no sign that a genuine democratic election will be introduced.
Many people feel frustrated and confused. Experiences from other parts of the world may throw
light on what should be the next step in Hong Kong’s democratic movement.
Bill Moyer first advanced his theory of social movements, the Movement Action Plan (MAP),
in 1987. Unlike other theories of social movements, MAP includes insights not only from theore-
tical perspectives but also from practical experiences. Moyer was part of Dr Martin Luther King,
Corresponding author:
Benny Yiu-ting Tai, University of Hong Kong, 801 Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Email: yttai@hku.hk
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2019, Vol. 4(4) 352–380
ªThe Author(s) 2018
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891118815777
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Jr’s staff and he had very rich experiences in a wi de range of social movements locally and
internationally. For many years, Moyer taught, trained and inspired many social activists around
the world.
MAP fills the gaps of existing theories of social movement (Moyer et al., 2001) by providing a
comprehensive theoretical model of social movement, a framework for understanding movement
outcomes and dynamics, a focus on the agency of activists and a guide to activists on how to
sustain and further develop a movement (Finley and Soifer, 2001).
Through his years of direct involvement in social movements, Moyer observed that there are
eight stages in every social movement. In striving to achieve the ultimate goal, each stage has its
own immediate goal. In each stage, activists would have to play a different role in advancing the
cause of the movement and adopt different strategies to respond to the strategies of powerholders
and the attitudes of the public. Activists have to be sensitive to the pitfalls and crisis in each stage
as they move from one to another.
This article aims to illustrate the stages of the democratic movement that Hong Kong has gone
through and at which stage Hong Kong is still struggling. However, the stages of MAP cannot be
mechanically applied to the case of Hong Kong in light of the unique situation faced by Hong Kong
people. One critical political reality is that Hong Kong’s authoritarian so vereign, the Chinese
Communist Regime (CCR), holds the final key to Hong Kong’s door to democracy. It is doubtful
whether an authoritarian regime would ever allow genuine democracy to be introduced even only
to a small part of its territory. Moyer’s theory will be modified accordingly.
As Moyer’s theory is an integration of his scholarly works an d practical experiences, its
application may have to be understood similarly. As also a scholar-activist (Suzuki and Mayorga,
2014), I find Moyer’s theory very attractive. The value of Moyer’s theory should not just be its
explanatory power on why things happened in the democratic movement in Hong Kong. Seeing the
democratic movement of Hong Kong as different stages should be able to provide insights on
searching for the possible direction of its future development. There is no doubt that predicting the
future is difficult. Some parts of the analysis, in particular the stages that Hong Kong is still
struggling with and those that it has not yet entered, will inevitably be speculative as they are
about something that has not yet happened. However, it is hoped that an analysis based on Moyer’s
theory can at least provide a meaningful framework for us to reasonably foresee what we may
encounter in the unknown future.
Stage one: Seeming normal
According to Moyer, a social movement starts because there are existing problems in society.
Every society has some forms of injustice. Widely held human values (such as freedom, democ-
racy, security and justice) or the best interests of society as a whole may be grossly violated for
years, but this mostly goes unnoticed.
Powerholders, public and private, use all means available to prevent injustices being exposed or
appearing on society’s agenda. These problems are sustained by various aspects of the society’s
culture and the state of unawareness of individual citizens. The dominant social and political
discourse constructed by the powerholders presents everything in society to be normal or even
good. The great majority of the population either does not know that the injustices exist or supports
the institutions, policies and practices that cause the injustices. As a result, the society seems to be
politically quiet (Moyer et al., 2001: 43).
Tai 353
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