Friday, October 3, 2014

“ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS”

Recently, the Chinese government released the first official document, after Hong Kong´s handover in 1997, to clarify the level of autonomy of this special administrative region (HKSAR). This document, the white paper, states that the next Hong Kong´s chief executive will be elected by universal suffrage in 2017, but after a careful selection of the candidates (between two and three) by a broadly representative nominating committee. This would be composed by pro Beijing people and businessmen that guarantee the selection of candidates who "love China"and make decisions acdording to the country´s interests. 


From the rational decision making perspective, this official communication goal is to guarantee that HKSAR will continue under the mandate of the Chinese government.
Allowing freedom in the postulation of candidates for the top position would also increase the risk that future HK decisions go against governmental policies, creating a conflictive environment within the country.

From a bounded rationality perspective, to adhere to the handover agreement, and to accomplish Hong Kong´s Basic Law, the Chinese government will hold a democratic suffrage for the top position of this state in 2017. Nonetheless, to decrease the uncertainty of the effect of new powerful decisions and therefore to avoid future disagreements with the governmental plans, it adapts the election process by filtering the candidates. This will be done by a committee that ensures these potential representatives will keep harmony between HK territory and mainland. Having into account the governance history in China, and under clear protests of many Hong Kongers, this conditioned resolution is a great advance toward democracy.   

1 comment:

  1. Hi Diana,
    I think that your topic is an interesting one to be used to show how humans are bounded to other factors that are not so rational. Nevertheless, after last week’s class, Mr. Boons clarified the way this assignment should be handled. He mentioned that we need to apply Jone’s 6 mechanisms of the behaviour theory of organisations, which are: organisational memory, agenda setting, parallel processing, serial processing, emotional contagion, and identification.
    If you decide to extend your assignment I would be looking forward to read it.

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