Chasing Freedom: The Philippines’ Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence

The middle classes are supposed to drive democratic reform, but in the Philippines, those citizens have often supported authoritarians, such as Ferdinand Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte. Webb finds the roots of this ambivalence not in an immature political culture, for which Filipinos are often blamed and blame themselves, but in the legacies of colonization by the United States. From 1898 to 1946, Washington imposed a set of U.S.-style democratic institutions while rejecting Filipino demands for independence (often on racist grounds). The United States continued to dominate the archipelago country after its independence in 1946. As a result, educated Filipinos often chose to support populist nationalists, such as Marcos and Duterte, who claimed to stand up to U.S. interference and to fight crime and corruption. But at other times, the middle class has risen up against such leaders, as it did against Marcos in the 1980s when political rights and civil liberties seemed under assault.