When the state fails, bureaucrats and civil society step up: analysing policy capacity with political nexus triads in the policy responses of Hong Kong to COVID-19

ABSTRACT

This article examines the importance of an autonomous bureaucracy and a strong civil society in the combat against COVID-19 by analysing the policy responses of Hong Kong under the combined framework of policy capacity and Political Nexus Triads (PNT). The case of Hong Kong underlines the importance of state–society interactions in constituting policy responses under a weak or failed state. From the perspective of collaborative governance, it is crucial for citizens to be engaged as partners in public policies, thus highlighting a certain degree of complementarity between state and non-state actors in the co-production of public policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy capacity
• Political Nexus Triads
• covid-19
• state–society relations
• co-production
• Hong Kong

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The COVID Residence Score is maintained by Bloomberg based on 10 key metrics, which are classified evenly into the two categories of ‘COVID Status’ and ‘Quality of Life’. See https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/for more information.

2. See Tufekci, Z. (12 May 2020). How Hong Kong did it. The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/05/how-hong-kong-beating-coronavirus/611524/

3. See Ting, V. (23 July 2020). Hong Kong third wave. South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3094406/hong-kong-third-wave-coronavirus-cases-could-peak

4. For more information, refer to https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3049166/hospital-workers-strike-organizers-threaten

5. For more information, refer to https://fightcovid19.hku.hk/flaws-in-the-system-behind-hong-kongs-third-wave/.

6. For more information, refer to https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3110408/lax-enforcement-hong-kong-new-covid-19-rule

7. For more information, refer to https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1551615-20200925.htm?archive_date=2020-09-25

8. For more information, refer to https://hongkongfp.com/2020/08/21/coronavirus-universal-testing-to-begin-on-sept-1-as-hong-kongs-lam-rejects-conspiracy-theories/

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Research Grant Council (RGC) General Research Fund of Hong Kong [Project ID: 14615917].

Notes on contributors

Wilson Wong

Wilson Wong is Programme Director of Data Science and Policy Studies (DSPS) of the Faculty of Social Science and an associate professor of Department of Government and Public Administration, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also the lead area editor of Data & Policy, a new journal focusing on data and governance by Cambridge University Press. He has served as a visiting scholar in Brookings Institution and Harvard University. His core research interests include e-governance, data science and public policy, technology and innovation, and comparative public policy.