Some Arguments for an Institutional Approach to Philippine Politics

1. Some Arguments for an Institutional Approach to Philippine Politics by Gene LaczaPilapil

2. Institutions, Institutional Approach, and Political Institutions Institutions • set of rules that influences the strategies of state and social actors -2 essential elements: • Rules • The behavior or strategies they structure

3. Institutions, Institutional Approach, and Political Institutions Institutional Approach • rules depend on what type of institutional approach is used - 2 types: • Economic-inspired • Include formal (written rules) and informal (unwritten rules) • Political Science-inspired • Also known as “new institutionalism” • Rules are limited to the formal rules • “parchment institutions”- written down as laws, regulations, constitutions, and so forth [John Carrey]

4. Institutional Approach • basic formal rules are found in the constitution, especially in a democracy e.g. nature of state, relationship among other states, relationship between citizens • informal rules are constituted of values and norms that either promote or constrain the formal rules • achieves to challenge society-centred explanations of political life from a more state-centred vantage point: focuses on the formal design of political institutions on social processes, including the informal norms that social actors embody. • - stresses the effect of formal rules on political, economic, and social life

5. Institutions, Institutional Approach, and Political Institutions Political Institutions • making, implementing, and adjudicating of policies binding for all members of a polity • quality of stateness of government and of politics(decision for all in law-making, and who have the right to influence binding policies) • In the Philippine context, they are the Executive branch, Congress, Supreme Court, and local governments. - include mechanism for the representation of interests and contestation of government policies i.e. party and electoral systems and committees

6. Importance of Political Institutions • Political institutions as Incentives and Constraints for State and Social Actors • -actors have a choice whether to comply or subvert the rules • a. Different political strategies • • Different time horizons • - Ability of actors to factor in costs and benefits of rules • - In a democracy, time horizon is lengthened because the costs of losing are lowered. (e.g. not immediately going to jail, die, etc.) • - When rules are seen by actors as fair, they generally comply with the rules • Presidential form of government may shorten time horizon (E.g President- cannot be easily impeached even if in a fraud with the legislature, congress, etc.) • • Different patterns of representation and contestation • - Electoral systems are divided between majoritarian single-member district (SMD) electoral systems and proportional representation (PR) electoral systems

7. Importance of Political Institutions • b. Different probability distributions and political outcomes • • Differences within democracies can also affect the probability distributions of political outcomes • • Different democratic constitutions have different rules 2. Political Institutions as mediating mechanisms between the state and social actors -different political institutions have different absorbing and or deflecting rates for social, economic, and political demands - mediate the effects of the state on society

8. Importance of Political Institutions 3. Institutional Blindness and society-based conceptual approaches -conceptual approaches have important differences among them, but they are all variants of a society-based approach - political institutions are dismissed as far less important factors than the social actors acting on them, thus studying their nature is not considered worthy of focus and analysis

9. *Marxist semi-colonial, semi-feudal approach - class configuration -institutional design is a relevant factor *Migdalian –inspired strong society-weak state approach -kind of social actors the society has *Weberianneopatrimonial approach -elite power over state or extent of elite or oligarchic predation *Hybrid approaches -state policies are by-products of any combination of a collage of classes, elites, interest groups, social movements, etc.

10. Importance of Political Institutions 4. Institutional seeing and an institutional conceptual approach vis-a-vis the state -understanding that the state may indeed be an instrument of either class or elite interests or an arena for the clash of class or elite predations -seeing that the design of political institutions has a major role in social permeation

11. Political Institutions may Provide the Missing Link • - more holistic because the concept of “political institutions” must be taken as seriously as “state” and “society” • - attention to institutional details may portray a more holistic picture

12. QUESTION TO ASK: How does the design of political institutions promote or hinder the effects of class domination or elite predation or civil society empowerment on the Philippine state’s policies?