Battles of Definitions

This book examines the discourses of democracy in thecontext of political development in Hong Kong duringthe first 10 years after the 1997 handover with ameans of rhetoric and frame analysis. Findings aredivided in to two; firstly the rhetorical themeswarranting the democracy discussion, secondly theframes of the debate and the frame portrayal of thedemocracy situation. Overall, the study shows howpolitical actors define political options and promotedevelopment, which is favourable to their interestsand views, through framing democracy in differentways. The book reveals the frames that describedifferent point of views, and contributes to theunderstanding of democrats' position as re-framers.Found frames are clustered into paradigmaticframesets that deal with the concrete democracy issueand the political situation in nowadays Hong Kong.Consequently, the democracy debate in Hong Kong isorganised around two opposite and idealised templatesfor democracy.