"In July 1997, as the British government handed Hong Kong back to China, the world wondered whether the building blocks of democracy that had been hastily laid down in Hong Kong over the previous two decades were sturdy enough to withstand the change.

While many scholars of democratization focus on outside forces and legal change, political sociologist Alvin So argues that - in the case of Hong Kong - the societal dimension reveals more clearly the issues and difficulties of establishing a viable democracy. He shows how Hong Kong moved from being a non-democracy in the 1970s, to a restricted democracy in the 1980s, to a contested democracy in the 1990s, and how Hong Kong now negotiates a democratic compromise under Chinese rule."--BOOK JACKET.