Review of Public Sector Power and Public Sector Pay in Hong Kong: A Survey of the Political Economy of Pay Determination in a British Colony (1965-1985)

摘要

This book aims to determine whether the absence of ministerial and effective legislative checks and balances had led to excessive expansion of the civil service and of civil service pay in Hong Kong, especially for the policy-making top bureaucrats. Also, the question of whether policy-making top bureaucrats took advantage of their own practically unchallenged position to substantially enhance their own salary in relation to the civil service at large is addressed by analyzing the salary rises of various tiers of the civil service. The study, which adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, spans a period of 20 years from 1965-1985, and makes use of cross-country comparisons with Britain, Australia and Singapore, which are selected on the basis of their relevance: Britain because she was the ruling colonial power; Australia because of her British social and ethnic origins; and Singapore because, like Hong Kong, civil service pay determination was based on the British prototype and Chinese business ethos was dominant in both, both enjoyed strong economic growth during the period under review, and there was continuity in governmental policies. Similarity of classification and treatment of data among these "comparator" economies make the cross-country comparison more reliable.