From the outset, the party supported the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China. The party's stance has been that Hong Kong must develop democratic institutions and preserve freedoms, in order to achieve prosperity for Hong Kong and China. Its stance is considered relatively moderate and middle-class oriented within the pro-democracy camp.
Over the years, the party has developed comprehensive policies on various areas of goverance with respective designated spokespersons, and has been considered a more mature political party in the HKSAR. Its platform included:
The Democratic Party was formed with the merger of two largest pro-democracy political groups at the time, the United Democrats of Hong Kong which was formed in April 1990, and the Meeting Point which was formed in 1983. It was the first group to formally consider itself a political party in Hong Kong.
Before the reunification of Hong Kong with Mainland China in 1997, the DP was the most popular party - following the earlier success of the pro-democracy camp in the 1991 LegCo election, the party won 19 seats in the 1995 Legislative Council (LegCo) election to become the largest party in LegCo.
The popularity of the party arised from its position towards the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, for which it had solemnly condemned the Chinese Government, and has requested it to confirm that the 1989 movement was a patriotic one. In the run-up to 1997, with widespread sentiment of uncertainty then towards the future of Hong Kong under Chinese rule, the party supported the controversial package of political reform bought about by former Hong Kong Governor, Chris Patten.
Such stance of the party set it in a confronting course with the Chinese Government, which in turn earned the party more popularity and recognition both locally and overseas. The founder and then party chairman, Mr. Martin Lee Chu-ming, became well-known internationally in the run-up to reunification as a human rights and democracy fighter, and has won a number of international human rights awards.
The party refused to join the Provisional Legislative Council established in December 1996 in protest of its formation. As the body became the official legislature of Hong Kong SAR after reunification, the party lost all its seats in the legislature, until the first LegCo election of the HKSAR on 24 May 1998.
Under the proportional representation system which the HKSAR Government considered a better system in representing the spectrum of views of the community, the party secured 12 out of 60 seats in the first LegCo election in 1998, including 9 out of 20 seats from geographicial constituencies where the party got 43% of the votes.
During this period, the party suffered from a decline in popularity. Some analysis attributed this to the increased concerns on economic issues as opposed to political ones, and the unpopular position of the party in issues such as the Right of Abode issue in 1999. In the second LegCo election two years later in 2000, the vote share of the party from geographicial constituencies dropped to 35%, and the party secured 9 out of the 24 directly elected seats. Its total number of seats in LegCo remained at 12.
Meanwhile, the party was plagued with internal fragmentation, further affecting its image. LegCo member Mr. Chan Wai-yip quitted the party in December 2001 following the sucession of former Chairman Martin Lee by Yeung Sum, leaving the party with 11 seats in the LegCo. In April 2002, some members in the "Young Turks" camp within the party lefted and joined another party in the democratic camp, The Frontier.
The cause of such factionalism arised from the political and economic orientations of the party platform. On the political side, some "Young Turks" of the party considered that the party leaders were too eager to establish a "dialogue" with the Beijing and the HKSAR Government, and not confrontational enough towards the authorities. Some also considered the party too "middle-class" and distant from the grass-roots on labour issues, such as legislation on minimum wage (which the party did not support).
2002 and 2003 saw a rebounce in the popularity of democratic camp, largely due to the Article 23 issue, and the low popularity of the HKSAR Government headed by Mr. Tung Chee Hwa. The party benefited from its opposition standpoint, and achieved a landslide victory in the 2003 District Council election, claiming 92 seats compared with 86 in the last election in 1999.
See also: Politics of Hong Kong, List of political parties in Hong Kong