Governance and Politics of Southeast Asia

Module 4: Topics 1-4

Module 4 Topic 1: Transitions from Authoritarian Rule

Introduction

Authoritarianism as the least liked system

● Totalitarianism, despotism, military dictatorship or whatever is called, the movement out from
under this system of government in Latin america has been almost universally welcomed
● Regimes that arise in the wake of dictatorship and repression, however, tend to be highly unstable

New conflict implies more challenges

● Ideological basis scrutinizing on how to interpret the process
by which the new democratic regime came into being
● Opponents of authoritarian rule and Advocates of political democracy, or
opponents of far-reaching social and economic change in Latin America

Political Agenda
● Usage of metaphor is a tool and clarify both positive and negative aspects of the transitions project
● Max Weber's metaphor is about levers on a railroad switch where a timely and a proposal, but not
superhuman, effort can change the direction of change running at full speed

Positive and Negative side

● Positive side - underscoring the opportunities for conscious political
action that exist in periods of political upsurge and transformation
● Negative side - focuses on attention on a particularly in a row conception of politics, on the
activities of the actors who have not been given access to the formal lovers of political change
● For the editors, they consider political democracy as desirable per se, even after recognizing
the significant trade off so that its installation and eventual consolidation can and tail in terms
of more effective, and more rapid, opportunities for reducing social and economic inequalities

Political Democracy
● Political democracy means certain set of rules and procedures,
principally open elections and oppositional rights (fine institutions)
● It is to ignore the connections between political life and the social and economic
conditions of power. It is because open elections and I was additional rights
provide a very limited basis for popular rule when a whole realm of decision

Whitehead’s Concept of Democracy

● There is a trade off between “democracy“ and social economic change. The transition becomes a
process of establishing the rules and procedures of political life, and since there is a trade off between
this goal and social economic progress, the transition becomes also a process of avoiding such progress

A Different Definition of Democracy

● It implies a different definition of the transition process
and also a different view of radical, popular struggle
● It is dependent upon change that goes beyond the
creation of electoral procedures and rights of opposition

Augusto Pinochet
● Head of Chile’s military government (1974–90)
● He was determined to exterminate leftism in Chile and to
reassert free-market policies in the country’s economy
● His junta was widely condemned for its harsh suppression

Hard and Soft Liners

● Hard liners - these are countries that are against the
transition or they are able to fully resist the transition
● Soft liners - countries that are not fully resisting transition
but are able to adapt to it to be able to maintain power

Foundations of Political Instability

Factors of political instability

● Economic decline
● Extreme Inequality
● Dependence on Foreign Resources
● Social Conflict

Imperialism
● Unstable nations become reliant on foreign powers (businesses, government, military)
● In countries of Latin America, Independence, cohesion, and power of a national capitalist class has
been undermined by the economic and political incursions of foreign businesses and governments
● National finance has relied heavily on the most stagnant economies - International bankers
● Historically, in the absence of greater economic success, for more ideological control, and brother
social legitimacy, open elections and oppositional rights have not been a secure means of political
organization in Latin America (or even in other countries, especially countries of SEA). Thus, there
has been a struggle of transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy
 Real Dilemmas of Change
● Great dilemma: “if you push too far and too fast, we may invite reaction and the only feet; if we are
too cautious and too slow, they may invite our own absorption and destruction within the status quo“
● In the context in which Democratic rules and procedures Have been successfully established, the
military and its supporters continue to possess considerable strength
○ Argentina - Argentenians Resist and Overthrow military rule over the “dirty war”
○ Philippines - Post-Marcos Era
○ Myanmar - Myanmar Army Ruler takes Prime Minister role and Promises Elections in 2023
● The ability of the left to provide any plausible alternatives to the programs of
austerity and socio-economic continuity sponsored by the post authoritarian regime
○ The problem of establishing an alternative: a political force that can attain popular adherence
● The possibility of actions that might provoke the authority especially if it’s in progress
of the regime’s full establishment
○ Regression of Cambodia’s Electoral Authoritarian Regime to a hegemonic authoritarian one

Module 4 Topic 2: The Irony from of Success

Module 4 Topic 3: Strong Demands and Weak Institutions

The Origins of Modern Philippine Parties

What is a Political Party?
● “an organized group of persons pursuing the same ideology, political ideas
or platforms of government" (Leones and Moraleda 1998: 290)
● But no one agrees to describe them as such:
○ dyadic patron-client relationships Landé, (1969: 156)
○ tools used by the elites in a personalistic system of political contests David (2001: 24-25)

Pre-Marcos Political Landscape

● 1972 - marked by the dominance of two major parties
● Period after 1986 - multiparty system
American Colonial Rule
● Built on past residual architecture and a growing call for revolutionary change = modern Philippine polity
● William Howard Taft
○ First philippine governor-general
○ policy of attraction
○ reforms that envisaged the creation of strong local governments
○ Organic Act of 1902

Methods of Suppression by American Colonialist

● Limiting the rights of suffrage
● Actively discouraged any sort of popular mobilization
● Anti Sedition law

Expansion of Areas of Contention

● indirect election of Philippine provincial governors by municipal officials was instituted in 1902
● provincial factions proved to be important in national-level political maneuvering
● political system was simultaneously highly restricted and rapidly expanding

The Birth of Partido Federal

● First national-level political party
● Taft believed that political parties were key to his version of “political education”
● Giving them seats in the Philippine Commission, giving them platforms as elites to
transcend their power into the provincial
● allowing them to appoint key officials in provinces
● The Compromise of Partido Federal
○ Political forces started playing their own games to gains access to politics and patronage
○ Taft started giving provincial governors a leeway into national politics

The Rise of Nacionalista Party

● Sergio Osmeña of Cebu and Manuel Quezon of Tayabas
● More permanent political base upon which to collaborate and compete with the colonial authorities
● Obstructed the goals of the U.S. governor-general

What are Internally Mobilized Parties?

● Patronage-oriented because they have access to the patronage
resources necessary to build a large following
● responsive to allies in the provinces who desired a maximum degree of
autonomy from colonial supervision
● EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: When bureaucratic systems have been
established to resist patronage-seeking parties

The End of the Taft Era

● There were increasing demands of Philippine led-governance that were
meticulously being pushed forward by the Nacionalistas
● dividing the spoils among the elite and expanding the quantity of spoils
available to the elite as a whole
 ● 1913 - Philippine Independence
● 1916 - first elected Senate
● Realizations:
○ systematic exclusion of the masses and the emergence of elite-controlled democratic institutions
○ provincial basis of national politics the decline of ideological differences within the elite
○ emergence of a patronage-oriented party (prototype for 20th century parties)

Establishing Filipino Bureaucracy

The Creation of the Commonwealth
● the Philippine legislature continued to be a major check on the authority of
the American colonial executive
● The same Constitution that allowed Quezon to be hailed as the president in
193 almost entirely diminished the control of the American governor-general

The Quezon Leadership

● the first Filipino politician with the power to integrate all levels of politics into a single system
● 90 percent' of his dealings with politicians involved the disposition of patronage
● There was an increase of voters in the 1930s vote bank
● Landlords learned to love the "democracy" they could so readily control

The Sakdal Party

● mobilization against landlords in protest against deteriorating conditions of tenancy
● won considerable support in the 1934 legislative elections as it attacked the
Nacionalistas for failing to demand early independence
Led an insurrection in central Luzon
● Quezon curtailed this through a sham “social justice policy”
● TAKEAWAY: authoritarian centralization of political patronage in the hands of a strong executive

Post-Independence Political Parties (1946,1948)

● Traces us back to the Osmeña to Marcos Administration where it
characterized a centralized theme of “Patronage Politics”
● American Colonization brought Philippine Institutional Democracy
unconsolidated thus manifesting weak political parties
● Elite Hegemony, Political Turncoatism, and dispersal to a
concentrated power as a succession of democratic deficits

Nacionalista Party VS Liberal Party

● Osmeña assumed the presidency after Quezon’s death, but was soon challenged by
Manuel Roxas and formed a new political party, the liberals.
● Meanwhile, repression of the peasantry grew worse in the countryside, and by
late 1946 the Huk units were once again in full-scale rebellion. This was soon
viewed by the US as a political opportunity
Challenges During Post-Independence Politics
● Enormous increase in the size of the electorate made political elites’ resort to convincing non elites
to vote for them. However, an establishment of Elite hegemony built factional coalitions in
ascending order of complexity from the municipal level upward to the provincial and national levels
● Political Turncoatism, the two rival parties were also indistinguishable on ideological grounds and
political disputes were fought more as a factional and personal issue.

Ramon Magsaysay
● Innovated in supplementing a traditional reliance on patron-client
ties with direct campaign appeals to the people.
● The continuing rapid growth of the electorate, combined with urbanization and the expansion of
radio and television in the 1960s, amplified the impact of changes brought about by Magsaysay's
direct appeals and the rise of more complex political machines such as “Controlled votes”.
● Elite dominance as described by “cacique democracy”

Coalition to Concentration of Power

● Ferdinand Marcos was elected in 1965 and seen as the “Master Cacique or
Master Warlord”, in that he created a privatized “security guards”, privatized
philippine constabulary, a client supreme court and a country overrun by cronies.
● The Marcos regime launched its own ruling party, the Kilusang Bagong
Lipunan (KBL) and brought forth new elite-led political parties to challenge
the KBL such as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP)
● Anger over the regime’s oppression and other abuses brought hundreds of
filipino out into the streets in a huge display of the monumental “People Power”

Philippine Democracy After 1986: Restoration and Change

Cory Aquino’s Period of “Restoration”
● Aquino faced the difficulty in relations with the two new center of powers: the military and civil society
● Institutionalized a political system that continues to discourage the emergence of more programmatic
political parties.
● Only focused in restoring the system for mediating elite factional competition
● Notable feat: Local Government Code of 1991

Fidel Ramos Economic Reforms

● Came with a more stronger reform impulse focusing on economics rather than on the political realm
● However, relied on the old-style pork barrel politics in order to promote new style economics

Estrada’s Stride to Position

● The revenge of the masses. They are tired of being led by smart people”
● A corrupt populist claiming to help the poor while he made himself rich
The Current Crisis of Philippine Democracy
The Fall of the Estrada Administration
● brought down by a coalition of civil society groups, segments of big business, media,
and the Catholic Church, and reformers within the military and civilian bureaucracy
● People Power 2 also showed the rigidity of the presidential system and the difficulty
of unseating an elected president through constitutional means
● People Power 2 was extra-constitutional
● Estrada’s election showed the vulnerability of the PH electoral system to populist appeals
● The impeachment process of Erap was merely a sham.
● legal challenges, destabilization, and coup rumors was Estrada’s combination of
strategies against Arroyo

Ramos VS Estrada Administrations

● Gloria was free to voice support for constitutional reform in 2004
because forces are mobilizing for constitutional reform, not against
● Constitutional reform in Estrada and Ramos administrations were
highly contested because the selfish reasons were apparent

Arroyo’s Election & Ruling Era

● most fraud-ridden election campaigning
● was mainly a matter of negotiating with local politicians who had vote-generation capability
● relied primarily on old styles of elite politics as she paid off a host of debts to those who
had made possible her assumption of high office
● concerned about declining support among reformist groups and the urban middle to upper classes.
● December 30 announcement that she would not run for reelection in 2004 and concentrate
instead on economic reforms, President Arroyo began to regain popular support

Takeaways
Philippine democracy can be traced to the institutional innovations of the American colonial era:
● the exclusion of the masses and elite hegemony over democratic institutions
● the provincial basis of national politic
● the overarching dominance of patronage over ideology as the primary foundation of Philippine political
parties powerful presidency
Philippine democracy fails on two fronts:
● give the disadvantaged a voice
● give any substantive challenge to highly inequitable socio-economic structures

Module 4 Topic 4: People Power and Political Opportunities

Political Opportunity / Political Theory

● refers to those aspects of the political system that affect the
possibilities that challenging groups have to mobilize effectively.

Political opportunity
● Developed to explain social movements in democracy and non-democracy
● Relevant in explaining social movement mobilization and outcomes in non-democratic contexts
● Core Dimensions:
○ Repression
○ Influential allies
○ Elite divisions
○ Press freedoms/information flows

Critiques of Political Opportunity

● Biased towards social movement in developed democracies
○ There is a lack of systematic applications of political opportunities to challenges outside democracy
● Selection bias problem
○ Some scholars corporate political opportunities in their explanation that could cause
a tendency that the works are case studies of single successful social movements
● Lack of core dimensions
○ Critics suggest that there is a need to identify the core dimensions which should
be consistently applied to make a useful comparison between countries
● Tendency to be ambiguous about what political opportunities are actually explaining.
○ Some situations for political opportunities may not influence or may
offer differently on the form of decent or the outcome of the movement
● Ignores the international context
○ The political opportunity dimension only focuses on the domestic aspect of the country

Philippines (background)
● Marcos used military power and legal procedures.
● Declaration of martial law gave way for Marcos to control the country fully, politically, and economically.
● The Catholic Church convinced the people to join the revolution.
● February 26 - Corazon Aquino sworn in as president and successfully ousted Marcos.
● August 21, 1983 - the assassination of Marcos’ political rival, Benigno Aquino
● 1985 - the regime lost its legitimacy
● February 16 - snap elections, where Marcos won because of the electoral fraud
○ Led to a rally and declared Corazon Aquino’s victory
● February 22 - withdrawal of Enrile and Ramos’ support on Marcos

Burma (background)
● Military - played central role in governance, bureaucratic-authoritarian or military socialist
● General Ne Win - assumed dictatorial power in march 1962
● The Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP)
○ Established by Ne Win
○ To mobilized the mass and political indoctrination
○ One party rule system
● Burma’s economy
○ military-run economy, independent from world economy
● Lon Htein
○ riot police, known as special unit force against Rangoon students
● Aung San Suu Kyi
○ leading voice for pro-democracy in Burma

Philippines Burma
Repression Marcos used police and military forces Military government - responds to
in repressing people who were against protest through minimal manpower and
him, including those peaceful maximum firepower to keep the unrest
demonstrators, and protesters. from spreading and to serve as restraints

Increased repression led to

mobilization of the people

Decline of repression led to his

downfall

Allies Catholic Church - along with the Buddhist Sangha - showed significant
Non-governmental support for the movement in Burma

Organizations, Business groups, Provided support for the people power

United States movement in the Philippines

Catholic church, United States,

Business class

Elite Division Divisions of cronies and non- cronies Division between pro-Ne Win
segments and pro-Tin U
- Cronies vs. private business
groups 1976 - seven military officers were
arrested for allegedly plotting to
Divisions of military command assassinate Ne Win
- Gen. Ponce Enrile & Gen. Fidel
Ramos vs. Gen. Fabian Ver

Press In 1972, the regime shut down all 1962 coup - state assumed control over
media outlets and arrested/killed all publishing and communications
Freedoms
journalists who criticized the regime.
- Alexander Orcullo Philippines - major media outlet was
controlled by marcos and his cronies
Alternative press and Catholic Church
Growth of print media in philippines in
burma facilitated the mobilization of
people power movements