| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 國家發展研究所 === 107 === Hong Kong residents’ feelings and perspectives towards the political formula of “one country, two systems”, adopted by Chinese authority for over 2 decades since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, will not only influence CCP’s revisions in ruling the special administration but also serve to be a vital reference paradigm for the more China-friendly or pro-unification Taiwanese. This study aims to explore Hong Kong people’s political trust towards Legislative Council and judicial system of the former British colony. Based upon analyses on four waves of surveys conducted respectively in 2001, 2007, 2012, and 2016 by researchers sponsored by The Hu Fu Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University, the authors attempted to evaluate any potential variations of Hong Kong residents’ trust towards the Legislative Council and courts of law and to identify possible reasons behind such variations, under the influences of demographic variable (genders, age, education, household income), societal variable (social status and religious faith), and political variable (identification with political parties, democratic values). Results from the current study were derived from 4 waives of surveys conducted aforementioned, literature review and discussions, as well as binary logit regression analysis, as shown below:
１． Hong Kong residents’ trust in Legislative Council peaked in 2007 with a 57% approval rating. The approval rating of trust has dropped nearly 20% and reached 37% in 2016, suggesting a steady trend of more and more distrust of Hong Kong residents toward the law-making body.
２． Hong Kong people’s trust in the judicial system and its courts of law has also depicted a negative trend of steady decline from surveys conducted in 2007, 2012 to opinion polls in 2016, though short of the significant 20% decrease seen in resident’s confidence in the Legislative Council.
３． In terms of demographic variable, survey respondents in the highest and lowest house income brackets have shared one common characteristic: less trust in both Hong Kong’s law making and judicial systems. As for society variable, surveys respondents who considered themselves in middle or mid-to-low social stratums were more likely to trust the Legislative Councils and courts of law, when compared with counterparts in the lowest social stratum. Finally, with regards to political variable, research findings has revealed one commonality in Hong Kong residents’ attitude towards both Legislative Council and the judicial system: within the overall democracy scale, only autonomy orientation was found to be statistically significant, while legality rights and freedom rights have revealed to show a negative correlation with trust in the Legislative Council and the courts of law in Hong Kong.
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