Democracy in crisis

After the People Power Revolution of 1986, democracy was restored to the Philippines. At that time, we all thought this would be a permanent fixture in our society. For most of us, we began to take democracy for granted in the Philippines.

However, during the past two or three decades, concerns about democracy’s future in the Philippines have become the center of political debate. The political environment in the country started becoming polluted with talks about restoring totalitarian rule. This discussion reached its apex during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. The media became increasingly subordinate to government intervention. The climax was the deliberate political decision not to renew the broadcast license of ABS-CBN. There was also constant persecution of independent publications like Rappler.

This concern about democracy’s future has become the center of political debates not only in the Philippines but also in many countries around the world which were considered bastions of democracy. In the United States for example, its president Donald Trump has publicly expressed admiration for totalitarian rulers like Vladimir Putin of Russia. According to the think tank Varieties of Democracy, internal divisions, political dissatisfaction and institutional dysfunction have become so severe that the United States is backsliding much faster than any other democracy in modern times.

In the Philippines, the 2028 presidential election is considered a test of whether democracy in the country will survive or fail. Most people assume that the structure of democracy is sound and the problems can be addressed by improving institutions and procedures through which it operates.

There are those who believe that the crisis of democracy in the Philippines goes deeper. This belief is derived due to a belief that the political and economic system in our country is so rotten, so corrupt, unrepresentative and incompetent that it is beyond reform.

There are those who think that contemporary democracy is fundamentally unworkable. There are different conclusions about what should replace the existing system.

One such proposal comes from Helene Landemore, a professor of political science at Yale. She is not opposed to democracy but is in fact a defender of democracy, albeit an increasingly critical one. She argues that democracy could be improved if it allows ordinary citizens more direct influence and participation. Landemore’s solution is to reimagine democracy from the ground up, replacing representative institution with direct citizen rule.

Although representative democracy is widely criticized, this form of government creates vital links between citizens and their government. Making governments more representative and responsive will require a wide variety of reforms. One critical reform is to remove the dominance of family dynasties in our political system.

Modern democracies are actually representative, whereby the people do not govern themselves directly but elect politicians to govern on their behalf. Many definitions of democracy therefore focus on elections. The famous Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, defined democracy as “an institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for a people’s vote.”

This electoral process is precisely the problem. In the Philippines, elections are at the center of politics and bound to fail because elections create a professional political class that is unsuited to genuine democratic rule. One reason is that elections seek power and are prone to be corrupted by it.

According to political scientist Landemore, those who seek power are usually “… alpha types, the charismatic, the daring, the entitled, the arrogant, even those with no shame whatsoever and sometimes, even the downright psychopathic. “

Landemore further says elections deny meaningful influence to ordinary citizens, especially “… the unambitious, the selfless and the unaccommodating.”

The election process filters out many of the citizens least attracted to power but best disposed to exercise it responsibly.

This is the attraction to the general public about a person like Leni Robredo who is reluctant to play the “political power game.”

One critical method that has been identified that might be part of reinvigorating democracy is civic education. This is spreading the knowledge of how democracies work and how citizens can shape it. The targets here should be the public schools because they form the overwhelming majority of the population.

Expanding and improving civic education in schools and elsewhere could help people be more informed in making political choices, become more active participants in public life and be better prepared to avoid misinformation, disinformation and efforts by foreign and domestic powers to manipulate political preferences.

Democracy depends on a sense of shared community and solidarity. There is a need for people to gain a sense of nationhood and avoid the strong regionalism that pervades the present politics.

There is no question that democracy is in trouble in the Philippines. The solution cannot depend on electing the right president. It must include institutional innovations like rebuilding the social fabric and the foundations of democratic life. This includes ending the dominance of family dynasties once and for all. This is only one of the many reforms that will be necessary if democracy will really improve the lives of the common people.