Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn 1997, the Philippine government privatized the operations of its publicly owned water service provider for Metro Manila. This was part of the global trend toward privatization of public services that started in the 1980s following a global economic crisis. The aims were to reduce government's role in economic development and in the provision of public services. Two decades later, however, the goals of Philippine water privatization continue to fall short of what it promised to do to the detriment of the consumers, particularly the urban poor. This article argues that the neoliberal development framework of privatization, deregulation, and economic liberalization and the market economy have generally favored corporate interests. The result has produced perennial problems such as the rising price of water and excessive profit taking and the limited and poor water services and sanitation coverage among others.

This paper seeks to elucidate the Philippine technocracy's rise into the power elite as well as its fall from position during the martial law period (1972- 1986). It aims to bring in the insights of the technocrats concerning their role in President Ferdinand E. Marcos's authoritarian regime and their views of the nature of the politics, which facilitated as well as impeded the economic decision-making process. The paper argues that the technocracy's technical expertise and shared development vision with the leadership and the country's major donors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, provided their power base.This was, however, continually challenged by the other economic power blocs which consisted mainly of factions within the technocracy, the Marcos cronies, and that of the First Lady Mrs. Imelda Marcos. For as long as the technocracy could access the needed IMF/World Bank loans for the country, the leadership gave it substantive bargaining leverage. This, however, would deteriorate with the country's economic and political instability as brought about by failed technocratic policies and worldwide economic recession in 1981 and the burgeoning antidictatorship movement spawned further by the 1983 assassination of ex-Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. The technocracy's loss of power was further aggravated by Marcos's failing health giving more clout to Mrs. Marcos's power bloc. What contributed to the technocracy's ultimate demise was their alienation from the general public as brought about by their vast differing perceptions of the causes of corruption, underdevelopment, and human rights abuses of the regime.Keywords: Philippine technocracy, economic decision making, Ferdinand E. Marcos, IMF/World Bank, antidictatorship movement

AbstractThis paper discusses the political opportunity structures which facilitated the creation of sites of interaction and protest against the Asian Development Bank during the Bank's Annual General Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2000. The factors which facilitated the coming together of Thai social movements and their regional and international counterparts are mainly their shared critique of the neo-liberal paradigm and its adverse effects on their respective countries. The strategies they used to highlight these effects enhanced their sites of engagement and confrontation with the Bank and included dialogue with Bank officials, demonstrations, and the use of the media to highlight their concerns. Importance was also placed on the manner in which they were able to mobilize resources for the anti-Asian Development Bank campaigns and the process by which they framed their issues to gain the sympathy and support of the public. The 1997 Asian financial crisis, which highlighted the shortcomings of the Bank's development paradigm, as well as the ongoing democratization process in Thailand during that period, provided the impetus in fostering the anti-globalization alliances of local and transnational social movements in a common venue.

This article explores the similarities and differences concerning the extent to which electoral politics addresses the concerns of Basque and Moro nationalism. These demands mainly focus on the factors that have brought about their political, cultural and, for the Moros, also economic marginalization. In terms of similarities, electoral politics in the form of plebiscites and referendums are used to gauge the sentiments of the Basques and the Moros with regards to approving a national constitution with provisions affecting them as well as the establishment of an autonomous region for the Moros and the strengthening of a federal form of government in the case of the Basques. Elections are also used to choose their leaders at the local, provincial, regional and national levels. As for the differences, among the major ones are the following: One is that electoral politics in the Basque region mirrors the class divide in society and reflects the interests of the constituencies. This is not the case in Muslim Mindanao whereby patronage politics rules and electoral results are generally dictated by the Muslim elites who have close ties with the national elites. And secondly, the ideological bias of the elected leader and his political power in Spain has a direct impact on Basque nationalism. In the case of the Philippines, it is the personality of the elected leader that determines whether peace negotiations will be pursued or not. But this does not impact on national or local electoral politics as in the case of Spain.

In 2005, the Third World Studies Center (TWSC) launched a policy dialogue series on "The Decade-Long Membership of the Philippines in the World Trade Organization (WTO)." This five-part lecture series generated issues, concerns, and debates among members of the academe, nongovernmental organizations as well as government functionaries on the costs of benefits of the country's membership in the WTO. Topics covered ranged from the gains, losses, and prospects of the country on the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), its commitments to the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and the country's negotiating strategy in the 2005 WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong.

One argument raised on the economic crisis, which the Philippines has continuously encountered since the 1970s, is the absence of transparency and accountability in the economic decision-making process. Technocrats who were appointed by the executive had a free rein on deciding economic matters and were only accountable to the Philippine president—a situation that led to failed economic policies which were not attuned to the needs of the people. This was challenged by the 1986 People Power Revolution. With the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship, the martial law technocrats saw their end. However, despite the return in the post-martial law years of "liberal democratic" structures for people participation, technocratic decision-making continued, particularly in the advent of neoliberal globalization. This, however, is continually challenged by civil society and social movements. Such a challenge is seen in the formulation of the Philippine negotiating position in the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) whereby technocrats and civil-society actors have to negotiate and come up with mutually acceptable terms. The following factors brought about this engagement: 1) the failure of the neoliberal paradigm which brought about the 1997 Asian financial crisis; 2) the need to involve civil society in crafting economic policies because of massive worldwide demonstrations against the WTO; 3) the state having to contend with domestic pressures brought about by the democratization process; 4) the public demand for transparency and accountability in economic decision-making; and lastly, 5) the existence of "reformist" technocrats who are open to alternative economic paradigms. These paved the way for the institutionalization of civil-society participation in designing the country's position on the AoA through the Task Force on WTO Agreement on Agriculture (Re)negotiations (TF-WAAR). Corollary to this is the development of civil society's technical expertise in the negotiation ...

The essay discusses how civil society has found an opening in intervening in the decision-making process on the country's negotiating position in the World Trade Organization (WTO). It particularly looks at political opportunity structures which made this possible including the following external and domestic factors: 1) the anti-globalization movement which has pressured states to be more transparent and accountable to the manner in which WTO policymaking is being undertaken, 2) the failure of the Uruguay Round to provide the economic benefits to the Philippines inducing the government to be more open to civil society intervention, 3) the effort of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the lead agency for the negotiations of the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), to bring in civil society players, which was exemplified by the DA's establishment of the Task Force on the WTO (Re)Negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture (TFWAR), and 4) the emergence of coalition-building in the WTO, particularly among developing countries. However, there are also challenges which civil society groups face such as the need for the active involvement of the legislators in the WTO negotiations; the institutionalization of civil society participation at the local and global levels; and the prioritization of civil society strategies on dealing with the WTO and their respective governments.

One of the still underdeveloped aspects in understanding politics is the role of culture in shaping political concerns. The three articles in this issue attempt to address this by critiquing current cultural paradigms and offering new ones in analyzing democratization, development, political conflict, and the intertwining of nationalism and globalization, among others. This is what J. Shola Omotola attempts to do in his article, "Against the Cultural Gap Thesis on Africa's Democratization." The cultural gap thesis argues that diverse African polities and societies are, by their nature, hostile grounds for democracy. Omotola contests this position on two grounds. First, he does away with the notion that there is only one form of democracy and a congruent political culture to sustain it. Then he argues that Africa's tumultuous relationship with democracy is not due to a natural misfit. Rather, it is a consequence of the continent's tortured history of colonialism and a subsequent postcolonial era ruled by capital that prefers profit to freedom; a stable market propped up by an iron hand over a society that is humane and just. A democratization that disregards such history and cultural specificity will indeed fail. The importance of culture and history shaping politics is further seen in Yilmaz Çolak's "Nationalism and the Political Use of History in Cyprus: Recent Developments." A particular and pertinent dimension, which Çolak examines, is nationalism as understood in the politics of Cyprus's history. Çolak points out that the historiographies of the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots produce respective collective memories, which have structured possible solutions to the Cyprus Problem. Their history of conflict and divergent allegiances to external powers have made it difficult for the political leaders on both sides to imagine a nationalism that is able to make the connections between all the individual and the state. As argued by Çolak, "The two states of Cyprus have launched typical processes of forming ...

This paper examines the factors which facilitated the linking of transnational social movements with local social movements in Thailand with regards to their anti-Asian Development Bank (ADB) campaigns. These transnational social movements include international nongovernment organizations (INGOs), such as the Bank Information Center, International Rivers Network, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, and NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in assisting the villagers of Klong Dan and social movements in Thailand in pressuring the ADB to look into their allegations concerning the Bank's Samut Prakarn Wastewater Management Project (SPWMP). Two of the major issues raised were that the project was environmentally unfriendly and that there was corruption involved in its implementation. A major objective of the INGOs and local social movements was for the ADB to investigate the project based on its established rules and procedures for ascertaining transparency, accountability, and good governance. The paper shows how INGOs played a substantive role in assisting as well as supplementing the efforts of the social movements in this regard. There were, however, also limitations to what the INGOs can do particularly with regard to dealing with the local politics vis-à-vis the SPWMP and the dynamics among the INGOs and between the local, Thai social movements and the INGOs. The efforts of local and international social movements were also supported by local political conditions which contributed to the successful anti-ADB campaigns. External factors also reinforced the advocacy of local and international social movements against the ADB among which were the emergence of the anti-globalizations movements in general and the advocacy of international as well as regional NGOs against ADB projects and policies in general.

This issue looks beyond earlier debates on Asian culture that, back then, were essentially built around dichotomies or polar opposites. This is because in recent years culture—Asian culture, in particular, has been widely problematized and contested, especially in light of fundamentalist tendencies and movements in the region and all over the world. Digital and nuclear advancements, transnational migration, and widespread political and social violence and destabilization are just few of the global developments of the twenty-first century that have profoundly reshaped the field. The theme of the issue emphasizes the valuable place of identity, viewed as a social and conceptual construct than an immutable psychological entity. Identity occupies an important place in discourse where cultural ramifications abound; new sites and modes of social interaction often impact on conceptions and perceptions of identity. True to the thrust of Kasarinlan, the articles in this issue also give credence to political economy. In discussions of culture and identity, the articles regard global trends as part of a political, neocolonial and imperialist project, implicitly or otherwise. Each article grounds particular social or ideological issues and the formation of identities within contentious historical or genealogical configurations.

There is already a substantial literature on contentious politics. Still, the pertinence as well as the fluidity of such a phenomenon continues to merit deeper study as it gives birth to various dimensions of interest. The four articles in this issue offer differing vantage points in studying contentious politics as it is played out in the process of democratizing local and global politics. Social movement actors have emerged as key players in confronting political institutions and in articulating the advocacies of the marginalized. However, they are not always on the side of angels. Ben Reid's "Development NGOs, Semiclientelism and the State in the Philippines: From 'Crossover' to Double-crossed" is a critique of how civil-society players in the Philippines have mirrored the clan-based politics and semi-clientelism that characterize society in general. This he elucidates as he discusses how non-governmental and people's organizations have attempted to "crossover" to state positions in their attempt to initiate social and economic reforms. A more positive note on the role of civil society in the democratization process at the local and global levels is found in my contribution to this issue, "Linking Local and Global Social Movements and the anti-ADB Campaigns: From Chiang Mai to Samut Prakarn." The article examines the factors that helped facilitate the linking of local and transnational social movements in the anti-Asian Development Bank (ADB) campaigns in the region. I point to the gains that they have attained in pressuring the ADB to look into their allegations concerning the ADB's Samut Prakarn Wastewater Management Project in Thailand. They argued that this particular project has fallen short in meeting the good governance criteria, which has been set forth by the ADB as a result of decades of advocacy from social movements. These concern the issues of transparency and accountability and sustainability. The experience has shown that global civil society movements do play an important role in supplementing ...

The 1986 People Power Revolution has ushered in new avenues in the Philippine popular movement to fight poverty and underdevelopment via cooperatives. Actually, the cooperative concept of mutual assistance is not alien to the Filipino people who are imbued with the bayanihan spirit. The rise of cooperatives is likewise attributable to the government's inefficiency in delivery of basic needs, the active involvement of NGOs and Pos in cooperativism and the creation of coop federations. These crucial players fill up the vacuum the state has left in the following aspects: access to capital, technical and infrastructural resources, marketing of products and self management. The populat movement has not only ensured the success of the economic endeavor but also introduced a political dimension through advocacy work in order to create a healthy environment for the coop's economic ventures. Among the issues addressed by such advocacy work are agrarian reform, environment protection and rural development. Thus, the Philippine coop movement's development agendum aims to confront both the major economic and political concerns of the society