representative government

The term representative government means the way the govering bodies formulating the policies relating to the public interests. It implies the principle of democracy by the following ways:

1. The principles of govering:
The main officials in the government would try lawfully their ways to collect the opinions and the statistics of the main public bodies or the main opinions of the general public before the formulation of new policies. In another way, the officials would try to respond to the change of public opinions when the policies created problems in the society. Through these means, the government can know more about the voices of the public and when new policies have to be implemented, she can respond as soon as possible to avoid creating problems in society.

2. The structure of the government:
The most prominent body of formulating policies(Legislative Council) is partly occupied by the officials elected by the people. And the government allows the set up of various pressure groups in society to give opinions to the officials.
Also, the government forgive some power to the district officials (Urban Council before 1997 and District Board after 2005) to actively collect opinions of the general public.

3.The political power of the public:
To maintain the responsiveness of the government officials, the govenment should be open and fair in formulating policies, and the public should have power to elect the main officials and creating the way to participate in the policy formulation. Now about half of the Legislative Councillors are directly elected.

Representative government 就是代議制政府，由於政府不能過份民主地問過每位國民之意見オ行事，故此人民便選出能夠代表自己意見的人來參與政府運作。香港以代議制模式選舉議會議員，參與政府運作的討論和決策，市民可透過議員向政府反映及表達自己意見。但這政制模式在香港的成效則見仁見智。