Elite Democracy

Similarly Kerkvliet (1995, 419) also mentioned the importance of the role of violence which he considered under the school of thought, “elite democracy”. The author also explained that violence and coercion is mostly present during the formal processes such as elections. Kerkvliet (1995,) even considered these illicit strategy as part of the routine in the democratic process which is ironic. Like Sidel (1989), Kerkvliet (1995) also looked beyond the usual PCF framework and emphasized that politicians are not only dependent on wealth and connections but also on the “physical use of force” (405). He also stated the “guns, goons and gold” (407) phrase that accurately illustrates elite democracy in the Philippines. Also the same idea was laid by

One of the main reasons that some scholars such as Dressel (2011) considers lies on the democratic system that the Philippines have. In his work, Dressel (2011, 530) explained that there are is a great number of indicators of the vibrant Philippine democracy. According to Dressel (2011) after the martial law in 1987, civil liberties were again granted to the Filipinos. The right to freedom of expression were also obvious. Much democratic space were provided to the Filipinos. Protests have been allowed again and this paved the way for the emergence of civil society. Moreover Dressel (2011, 530) stated the fact that voter turnout was impressive since the holding of elections post war martial law in 1992, 1998, 2004, and 2007. Also until the 2013 elections one can say that voter turnout is still impressive because it is still above fifty-percent both for the congress and the presidency. However, Dressel (2011, 541) concluded that what the Philippines have is a “reduced democracy”. He furthered explained that the democracy in the Philippines consists of flaws that runs deep through the system. Moreover he argued that the factors for a poor substantive democracy is the continued “elite-dominance, institutional weakness, and corruption” (Dressel 2011,

One of the main characteristics of the Philippine party system before the revolution of 1986 is its two party system. Nacionalista and the Liberals are the two core parties that compete during elections (Lande 1976, 19) However much has changed since then. Multi-party system in the Philippines flourished, as result it gave way to the establishment of different parties namely PRP (People’s Republic of the Philippines), PMP (Partido ng Masang Pilipino), NPC (Nationalist Coalition of the Philippines), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) and many others (Teehankee