The Hong Kong government, in common with many others around the world, has experienced major difficulties in implementing educational reforms. The nature of the constraints on implementation, however, have differed significantly between the pre- and post-1997 periods. During the transition to Chinese sovereignty, the colonial government sought to avoid friction with teachers and pressure groups which might have resulted from determined efforts to implement its reforms. Policy, consequently, was usually symbolic and often remained at the level of rhetoric. The post-1997 government has shown more intent to bring about change but has been hampered both by an inherited culture of inertia and cynicism towards reform and by the dysfunctions of a disarticulated political system which have led to problems of co-ordination and a loss of capacity. The article analyses the relationship between educational reform and the changing political system and concludes that reform remains an elusive objective. [Copyright of Journal of Education Policy is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0268093032000042218 ]
