Hong Kong pro-democracy 35 plus movement: How different types of polarisation shaped the deliberations

This research reconstructs the deliberations of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy 35+ Movement in 2020 and aims to discover the occurrence of different types of polarisation, namely positional, affective, interactional and interpretative, unfolded in the deliberative process. Using process tracing, the research interviewed participants who attended three separate series of deliberation meetings. This research also found out what issues were at stake and how various kinds of polarisation shaped the deliberative process inside and outside the meetings. The research discovered the possibility that positional polarisation can serve as a trigger for a group to adopt a more radical measure after moderates or dissidents exit from the deliberative process. It enriched the existing group polarisation literature by describing the types of polarisation in the deliberative process and opened a possibility for future research on the role of other types of polarisation serving as a trigger in the same manner.