Polarized Publics: The Tragedy of People Power and Philippine Democratization

• In Event: Social Mobilization, Governance, and Polarization in Southeast Asian Politics

Abstract

To what extent do political elites manipulate publics to dramatically magnify popular sentiment against democratically-elected governments? Existing literature tends to focus on rare events such as regime breakdown (Bermeo 2003; Capoccia 2005) while neglecting the continuation of this strategic action under democratic settings. This paper analyzes the different strategies of polarization employed by different elite factions within a democratizing regime. It conducts a longitudinal study of the Philippines, one of Asia’s oldest democracies, from 1998-2008 where it experiences several cycles of protest and political instability. It argues elite manipulation manifested in the formation of polarized publics often with the help of civil society mobilization. Filipino civil society, heralded as one of the world’s most dynamic and robust defenders of democracy, contributed to this polarization by actively participating in partisan politics, providing the mobilizational muscle to elite ambitions, and actively supporting military cum civilian plots to unseat elected leaders. It concludes by examining the prospects for Philippine democracy given a less-than-credible civil society capable of generating political polarization within a context of an unfinished democratization process.

Author

• Aries Arugay, University of the Philippines-Diliman