Carol Jones. “Dissolving the People’: Capitalism, Law and Democracy in Hong Kong.” In Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism. Edited by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, pp. 109-150, Oxford, U.K: Hart Publishing, 2007.

In this chapter, author Carol Jones challenges the conventional assumption that capitalism, democracy, and the rule of law naturally develop together. Using Hong Kong as a case study, it demonstrates that a society can exhibit strong rule-of-law protections, economic liberalism, and core civil freedoms without ever becoming a liberal democracy. Despite its status as a major global financial center with robust legal safeguards, such as habeas corpus, due process, and freedoms of speech and association, Hong Kong has historically lacked universal suffrage and fully representative government.

Jones argues that, in both colonial and post-colonial periods, the state was moderated not by democratic accountability but by legal institutions and a “legal complex” that constrained arbitrary power. Notably, this legal complex sometimes included state-affiliated lawyers, illustrating a paradox in which legal actors both served and restrained governmental authority. The Hong Kong case raises critical questions about whether legal professionals merely facilitated commercial capitalism or actively shaped a liberal legal order in the absence of democracy. Framed within the study of democratic resilience and backsliding, the text suggests that legal institutions can provide meaningful constraints on authoritarian governance, but also that liberal legality without democratic foundations may remain structurally vulnerable.