Fascism in the Philippines—Here to Stay?

Ferdinand Marcos at the White House, 1966

FASCISM IN THE PHILIPPINES—HERE TO STAY?

Filipinos went to the polls last year looking for a strong-willed president who would punish the corrupt, rid the country of criminals, waste no words on incompetent public officials, and whip the whole government service into line. In their eyes, the entire system had become so corrupted that only a confirmed outsider to the ruling political class would have filled the bill.

From the moment he opened his mouth at the start of the electoral campaign, Mr. Duterte had become that figure. It had nothing to do with the specific issues he championed (like the shift to a federal form of government), or what he pledged to do if elected (like riding a jetski and carrying a Philippine flag to the nearest Chinese outpost, or dumping the dead bodies of drug pushers into Manila Bay to fatten the fish). People were looking for a weapon against the system, and they found it in him.

This antisystemic impulse will likely outlive President Duterte. So deep are its wellsprings that the people will learn to resolve their cognitive dissonance (the conflict between beliefs and information about events) by reinterpreting events rather than by altering their beliefs. They will find ways to rationalize and reinforce their trust in the card they had picked—until a more persuasive symbol of change comes along, someone who will offer a coherent plan and a bolder but optimistic view of government. One thing is certain, though: There can be no return to the old discredited system.

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Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/107909/nations-last-card#ixzz4vdYpeOCS

—Randy David, “The nation’s last card?” Philippine Daily Inquirer (October 15, 2017) 

 

Below is an excellent discussion of fascism. It lays the groundwork for understanding the appeal of fascism in the Philippines, which is rooted in populist disillusionment with liberal democracy.

WHAT IS FASCISM?

Fascism is a complex ideology. There are many definitions of fascism; some people describe it as a type or set of political actions, a political philosophy or a mass movement. Most definitions agree that fascism is authoritarian and promotes nationalism at all costs, but its basic characteristics are a matter of debate.

Fascism is commonly associated with German Nazi and Italian regimes that came to power after World War I, though several other countries have experienced fascist regimes or elements of them. Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Francisco Franco in Spain and Juan Perón in Argentina were well-known fascist leaders of the 20th century.

…Robert Paxton, a professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University in New York who is widely considered the father of fascism studies, defined fascism as “a form of political practice distinctive to the 20th century that arouses popular enthusiasm by sophisticated propaganda techniques for an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, violently exclusionary, expansionist nationalist agenda.”

…Though fascism can be difficult to define, all fascist movements share some core beliefs and actions.

Fascism’s core elements

Fascism requires some basic allegiances, such as to the nation, to national grandeur, and to a master race or group. The core principle — what Paxton defined as fascism’s only definition of morality — is to make the nation stronger, more powerful, larger and more successful. Since fascists see national strength as the only thing that makes a nation “good,” fascists will use any means necessary to achieve that goal.

As a result, fascists aim to use the country’s assets to increase the country’s strength. This leads to a nationalization of assets, Montague said, and in this, fascism resembles Marxism.

…“If Marxism was meant to become a magnitude of countries sharing assets in an economic idea, fascists tried to do the same thing within a country,” he said.

Guided by the principle of extreme nationalism, fascist regimes tend to perform similar actions, though the particulars differ, author George Orwell wrote in his essay “What Is Fascism?” According to Paxton, these regimes excel at propaganda and make use of grand gestures, such as parades and leaders’ dramatic entrances. Fascists scapegoat and demonize other groups, though those groups differ by country and time. That is why the German Nazi regime demonized Jews and others, while Mussolini’s Italian regime demonized Bolsheviks.

…Paxton, author of several books, including “The Anatomy of Fascism” (Vintage, 2005), said fascism is based more on feelings than philosophical ideas. In his 1988 essay “The Five Stages of Fascism,” published in 1998 in the Journal of Modern History, he defined seven feelings that act as “mobilizing passions” for fascist regimes. They are:

- The primacy of the group. Supporting the group feels more important than maintaining either individual or universal rights.

- Believing that one’s group is a victim. This justifies any behavior against the group’s enemies.

- The belief that individualism and liberalism enable dangerous decadence and have a negative effect on the group.

- A strong sense of community or brotherhood. This brotherhood’s “unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary.”

- Individual self-esteem is tied up in the grandeur of the group. Paxton called this an “enhanced sense of identity and belonging.”

- Extreme support of a “natural” leader, who is always male. This results in one man taking on the role of national savior.

- “The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group’s success in a Darwinian struggle,” Paxton wrote. The idea of a naturally superior group or, especially in Hitler’s case, biological racism, fits into a fascist interpretation of Darwinism.

Once in power, “fascist dictatorships suppressed individual liberties, imprisoned opponents, forbade strikes, authorized unlimited police power in the name of national unity and revival, and committed military aggression,” Paxton wrote.

Economics of fascism

The economics of fascism are complicated, Montague said. Fascist governments’ purported goal was autarky, or national self-sufficiency. In the 1920s and 1930s, fascist leaders pitched this as an effective middle ground between bourgeois, profit-oriented capitalism and revolutionary Marxism that would dismantle many social institutions and persecute the bourgeoisie.

…One element of fascism is collaboration with capitalists and the conservative elite. Fascists, even when they start out with radical ideas, always collaborate to move in the direction of protecting private property, Paxton told Live Science. This is, however, an awkward alliance, he said.

“Conservatives are basically people of order who want to use things like the church and property to maintain an existing social order, whereas fascists are revolutionists who will break up social institutions if they think it will bring national power or grandeur or expansion,” he said.

…Why is fascism so hard to define?

…In 1944, while much of the world was still influenced by fascist regimes, Orwell said that fascism is extremely difficult to define. In his “What Is Fascism?” essay, he said that much of the trouble was that fascist regimes differ wildly in many ways. “It is not easy, for instance, to fit Germany and Japan into the same framework, and it is even harder with some of the small states which are describable as fascist,” Orwell wrote.

Fascism always takes on the individual characteristics of the country it is in, leading to very different regimes. For instance, Paxton wrote in “The Five Stages of Fascism” that “religion … would play a much greater role in authentic fascism in the United States” than it would in the more secular Europe. National variants of fascism differ more broadly than national variants of, for instance, communism or capitalism, Paxton said.

Further complicating matters, nonfascist governments have often mimicked elements of fascist regimes to give the appearance of force and national vitality, Paxton said. For example, mass mobilizations of citizens in colored shirts do not automatically equate to a fascist political practice, he said.

…Unlike most other political, social or ethical philosophies — such as communism, capitalism, conservatism, liberalism or socialism — fascism does not have a set philosophy. As Paxton wrote, “There was no ‘Fascist Manifesto,’ no founding fascist thinker.”

…For a fascist party to become powerful, the combination of a strong national identity and disenchantment with government still needs a catalyst to make regular people side with vocal fascists, Montague said. In Germany, and to an extent Italy, this catalyst was the Great Depression, he said.

…Paxton stressed this point: “The rise of fascism is not really comprehensible without paying attention to the rise of communism,” he said. “In the 20th century, they were the two movements that proposed to set democracy aside and replace it with something else in order to make the country stronger.”

https://www.livescience.com/57622-fascism.html

—Mindy Weisberger, “What is fascism?” Live Science, updated November 29, 2021 

 

We might add that liberal democracy per se is not discredited. Ineffective, weak implementations of liberal democracy, such as what you encounter in the Philippines, a public sector rife with patronage, massive corruption, and impunity have been discredited long ago even if this state of affairs persists. It is effective liberal democracy that has not been discredited, with the concomitant economic and human development. And it is effective liberal democracy that the Philippines should aspire for and work toward.