The voting propensity of Hong Kong Christians: Individual disposition, church influence, and the China factor

Considering China's history of unfavorable treatment of mainland Chinese Ch ristians, the authors hypothesize that Christians in Hong Kong reflected th eir concern over the future protection of religious freedom during the 1995 Legislative Council election, the last election before the handover of the British colony to Chinese sovereignty. We have looked at the relative cont ributions of individual disposition, the China factor and church influence on the presence of Hong Kong Christians at the polling booth on election da y. Our analysis found that Hong Kong Christians are subjected more to the i nfluence of the latter two factors. The influence of socio-economic status is relatively unimportant in determining the voting propensity of Hong Kong Christians. While both Catholics and Protestants are influenced by general church teachings, this research found that Catholic voters are more subjec t to their church's organizational mobilization than Protestant voters.