Social Policy Development In Hong Kong Case Study

Social policy developments, and the main factors, in Hong Kong before 1997

1. Introduction
Before 1997, the Britain Colonial Government governs Hong Kong, and thus the social policy was also established by it. Yet, there was an important event happened to Hong Kong in 1997, which is the change of sovereignty. In this short essay, the development of social welfare in Hong Kong before 1997, as well as the main factors will be examined.

Generally, the social policy development in Hong Kong before 1997 can be divided into 4 phases, in which they are characterized by different factors of change. Due to the colonial system of administration, there was no comprehensive social policy development in Hong Kong. This was also attributed to other factors,

Poor sanitation and planning gave rise to an extremely unhealthy Hong Kong at that period. In 1850, the deaths among the troops rose to 23.94% mortality compared with 10% for the civilian population. The extremely high mortality of troops and civilians from fever even initiated the Queen to write to the Secretary of State asking for the exchange of Hong Kong for a healthier colony. Although the British government itself had noticed the serious level of the problem, it did little to tackle with it but just planned to have colony regions

Even in other leading countries, social welfare was not well established at that period of time since both the government and the civilians were not familiar with the concept.

The culture of the traditional Chinese family also matters. Chinese family felt a responsibility for one to look after the family members who were in trouble, even if the relationship was distant. There was little sense of responsibility incumbent on anyone outside the family, including the government. The majority of the citizens felt unnecessary for the imposing of social policy. Without the sounds from the public, the government tended to save the expenditures on the social welfare aspect.

Moreover, the residual social policy was contributed by the rapidly changing of the populations in Hong Kong. People in distress could go back to their native villages and families in China for help. On the other hand, government schemes to aid the poor and distressed might attract many such people from China. This invariant population that changed irregularly, discouraged the establishment of the social policy by the