Feudal Democracy

 

FEUDAL DEMOCRACY

One of the defining features of a patronage society is personal fiefdoms, wherein the public is misappropriated as private. Feudal society was defined by this type of patronage.

The feudal lord would dispense favors, privileges, and property in exchange for loyalty from his vassals and subjects.

In a feudal democracy, this loyalty is expressed as votes.

In contrast, in a genuine democracy, public resources are separated from private property, and the public wherewithal is used for the good of larger society and not treated like someone’s personal piggy bank.

One of the objectives of republican democracy today is to maintain this separation of the public and private.

Our elections turn this defining objective on its head by putting feudal lords in power. It’s destructive to democratic society overall.

A classic example is the Marcos dictatorship, and the 2022 election of Marcos Jr. indicates that the values and attitudes underlying the Philippine polity are still pervasively feudal. Imee Marcos has herself described Ilocos Norte as the Marcos family’s “grand duchy.”

We have to undergo a revolution of values and attitudes in order to attain the many advantages and benefits that we observe and encounter in the postindustrial democracies of the developed world.

We have to profess democratic values and attitudes for Philippine democracy itself to succeed. The Philippine polity has to be democratized.

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Randy David explains very well the underlying motivation of the Philippine voter when they choose candidates according to their membership in a patronage network often intersecting with their ethnic identity.

Only in major urbanized cities do we come across Philippine voters who choose candidates according to intentionally analytical criteria, which are appropriate to a modern democracy.

WHY FILIPINOS VOTE THE WAY THEY DO

By: Randy David - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:02 AM May 01, 2022

While a good number of thoughtful Filipinos believe that the May 2022 presidential election is a watershed moment for our country and for generations to come — one that demands the most careful reflection about the kind of nation we want to be — this is not necessarily how the majority of voters think about this election, or other elections for that matter.

All elections are relational in nature — meaning, their importance depends on how a voter regards his/her vote in relation to the practicalities of their daily lives. Some voters simply don’t care enough to take the trouble of registering and going to the polls. Others strictly follow the “guidance” of their religious leaders as a matter of duty. For the vast majority, especially at the local level where politics is much more intense, elections are mainly a time for choosing which patronage network they identify with.

…The patronage networks I’m talking about here are local support systems kept alive all year round by barangay and “pook” leaders, municipal and city councilors, mayors, and district representatives. They are held together at the top by dominant political families and business blocs, and the whole array of private enterprises (both legal and illegal) and public agencies they control.

…Above the level of the local community — say, at the senatorial and presidential levels — the search for affinity typically follows linguistic lines. Filipino voters still prefer to vote for their kind. Despite all claims to modernity, we remain basically tribal. Which is why the old political formula of recruiting presidential tandems from the major regional linguistic groups remains relevant.

It is in the major urbanized cities, where ethnic identities converge and dissolve, that we may find the ideal independent voter who bases his/her choices on a careful scrutiny of candidates’ qualifications, personal integrity, relevant experience, past performance, and political platform. Still, even in such settings, the quest for connection or affinity never completely disappears.

I know of some educated voters who cannot imagine not supporting the candidacies of people they personally know and relate to, even when these candidates openly endorse presidential bets who represent everything they oppose. This willful blindness to issues and to visions of a better society is what makes our politics so hopelessly myopic and personal.

But that is just my view as a political observer. In many ways, every voter is also an observer who justifies the choices he or she makes according to criteria that he/she may or may not be fully aware of. Whatever they are, such criteria never appear in surveys. I have always wondered, for instance, what type of logic governs the senatorial rankings reported in this year’s pre-election surveys. My guess is that these preferences are more likely based on the emotional disposition of survey respondents than on any rigorous calculation of the kind of Senate our country needs at this time.

…The point is: elections are less about public opinion than they are about hidden feelings and latent dispositions that cannot easily be formulated in a coherent way — or countered by appeal to facts.

public.lives@gmail.com

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/152534/why-filipinos-vote-the-way-they-do#ixzz7UM0cgjke

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Paul Dumol argues persuasively that our feudal system of patronage has deep historical and cultural roots in pre-Hispanic society.

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OF DATUS AND ALIPINS

“Our history gives us clues [on why we vote the way we do],” said Dr. Paul Dumol, a Philippine History professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, at a lecture at the Ortigas Foundation Library on Dec. 9.

Mr. Dumol — a member of the Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy and a recipient of National Historical Commission’s Gawad Rizal in 2012 — said that the Philippines actually held its first elections at the end of the 16th century, with datus (chieftains) choosing among themselves for a chief datu. By the end of the 17th century under Spanish rule, he said the Philippine electorate was limited to Tagalogs and Pampangos only, because of “unrest, factions, lawsuits, and political negotiation.”

Factionalism “is the worst defect of the Filipinos,” said Mr. Dumol, echoing Dr. Jose Rizal’s sentiments. As an example, he pointed to the eight rays on the country’s flag that symbolize the provinces involved in the revolution against Spain, and asked: What were the other regions doing?

“The Philippines isn’t a nation — yet,” said Mr. Dumol.

“Social evolution is proceeding within the framework of the state at different speeds in different parts of the country. Past and future coexist. You cannot address the voters in the same way. Nag-iiba ang mentalidad nila (Their mentality varies). The stages of our social evolution chart the evolution of our understanding of the common good,” he added.

“There’s no national common good if people are only concerned about their family,” he said.

The solution is a “change in our minds and hearts,” which is the lesson of history, noting the patriots Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, and Heneral Antonio Luna, he said.

WHO’S YOUR BOSS?

“The Philippines is a feudal nation,” declared the history professor, who is also a playwright.

He expounded on the idea that our “society is held together by ‘vertical loyalties.’ In short, kaninong tao ka? Sinong amo mo? (Who’s person are you? Who’s your boss?)

“This [has] roots [reaching] back to [the] timawa and aliping saguiguilid and aliping namamahay, and the datus,” he said, referring to the various classes of serfs and slaves of pre-colonial Philippines.

This traditional set-up still exists today, with the modern-day datus being the rich families that hold power in a barangay or city; the modern serfs/slaves are the “goons, workers, and domestic helpers.”

Borrowing from University of the Philippines professor Randy David’s observation, Mr. Dumol said, “The Philippines has the largest number of security guards — a little less than half a million — in the world… They are the modern timawas (emancipated slaves). Again, my point is that history is within us. You will vote as the bossing (boss) will tell you to vote.”

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https://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/focus/2016/01/08/11476/why-do-we-vote-the-way-we-do/

—Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman, “Why do we vote the way we do?” BusinessWorld (January 8, 2016)

I would add that our pre-Hispanic feudal system of power relations was co-opted by the Spanish conquerors, who themselves were the children of a feudal, royalist society.

Dumol says that a transformation of values and attitudes, of “minds and hearts,” is required to progress beyond feudalism.

Education in this direction is the professed objective of the Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy, of which Dumol is a member. Their website describes the organization as follows:

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WHO WE ARE

The Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy (PCCED) is a non-government organization dedicated to the strengthening civic education as a means to more meaningful citizen participation in democratic life.

We believe that our common vision as a people is to “make democracy work out of love of country”.

This vision guides us as we work with teachers, youth leaders, local authorities, civil society groups, and all civic educators. We aim to strengthen civics in schools, empower local authorities and civil society groups in order to engage in ‘shared governance, and create more effective platforms for citizen participation in local governance.

Since 2004, PCCED has developed a number of programs designed to provide the requisite knowledge, skills and disposition of good citizenship.

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https://www.pcced.org.ph/about-us/ 

—“About Us,” Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy, 2022