The Development of Social Welfare (in a Board Sense) Before the Change of Sovereignty in 1997.

Comment Critically the development of social welfare (in a board sense) before the change of sovereignty in 1997. What are the main factors affecting the development of social welfare in Hong Kong before 1997?

Introduction

Social welfare is basically developed to satisfy social needs and to provide aid to citizens who are in need in order to improve the life standard of society, it can be provided by the government itself or other groups of charity. But however, the way and the intensity of the social welfare vary from country to country and time to time as well. Therefore, before we criticize the development of social welfare and the factors affecting it before 1997, we should firstly understand the background of Hong Kong at that time

Due to the First Opium War in 1842, the cession of Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom has been resulted, founded as a crown colony. In 1898, Hong Kong was completely ruled by the British colonial government for 99 years and at that time, Hong Kong started to become a British colony in the age of imperialism and colonialism. As a result, the provision and the development of the social welfare in Hong Kong were influenced by the role of the colonial government and also the policy from the Colonial Office in London together with the traditional thinking and behavior of Hong Kong citizens.

The development of social welfare before 1997

Although the social welfare system kept changing at that time, but generally, the development of the social welfare policy can be divided into 4 phases: Residual social policy (1940’s to 1950’s), partial social policy (1950’s to 1960’s), ‘big bang’ social policy (1970’s) and incremental social policy (1970’s to 1997)

1. Residual social policy (1940’s to 1950’s)

As a colonial region before the Second World War, a little administration could satisfy the needs of the people as what the British government believed. Under the self- sufficient policy by the Colonial Office, every...