PINOY POLITICS 101: ON POLITICAL DYNASTIES

PINOY POLITICS 101: First of Five Modular Lessons

Defining a ‘Political Dynasty’: Its nature and character

       John Andrew S. Bautista, OP

        Political dynasty is a succession of rulers from the same family or line. It is a family or group that maintains power for several generations. In a Political dynasty, it refers to a situation wherein it is normal for a politician's son, wife, brother, or other kinsman, to run for the same position or likewise other government office. These dynasties are characterized by family members and close relatives of established politicians getting into politics and succeeding them in the same position or in a different one.

Political dynasties exemplify a particular form of elite persistence in which a single or few family groups monopolize political power. Alfred Mccoy, a noted historian of southeast Asia and sociologist who wrote a monumental study on elite politics in the Philippines, demonstrably called it “a seamless system of oligarchical democracy in the Philippines” that have dominated municipalities, congressional districts, and in some cases entire provinces across several generations and decades.[1] In our country, it has been observed that political dynasties are particularly prevalent in poorer regions, suggesting that either poverty brings about political dynasties, or political dynasties fail to reduce, or even worsen the problem of poverty.[2]

On the other hand, Political Dynasties are not exclusive to Philippine politics. The U.S. has a Kennedy and Bush families, India has a Ghandies, Indonesia has a Suharto family, Malaysia has the Razak, while Thailand has the Shinawatra family.The existence and practice of Political Dynasties are common in many contemporary democracies such as Argentina, India, Japan, Mexico and here in the Philippines.[3] In these countries, their respective leaders and rulers also come from same family that are occupying elected positions either in sequence for the same position or simultaneously across different positions.

In our own country, we have here a notable example of a dynastic democracy.  More than half of elected Philippine congressmen and governors have a relative who has held elected office previously. In the following sub-chapters, the researcher shall identify and ascertain the existence and presence of Political Dynasties in the Philippines with our gathered surveys and statistics from various legitimate and official research conducting institutions.

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[1] Alfred W. McCoy, An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines (University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 12.

[2] Ronald Mendoza, et. al., Political Dynasties and Poverty: Evidence from the Philippines,  Research Paper, Asian Institute of Management, 2013.

[3] McCoy, An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines, 47.