2007 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 37-57
The main purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of the hegemonic struggles over democratization in civil society that took place during the dismantling process of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and to analyze the manner in which these struggles influenced the direction of democratization.
The collapse of the Marcos dictatorship was a fascinating phenomenon that has aroused the curiosity of researchers. One of the reasons for this is the emergence of an overwhelming civic uprising, often known as “people power,” which finally overthrew the Marcos regime in February1986. Many analysts and researchers have tried to explain this uprising as the crystallization of civil society.
However, a brief review of previous studies reveals that most of these have treated civil society as a homogeneous sphere or have focused only on the activities of a particular actor as a representative of the entire civil society. Little attention has been paid to the complicated dynamics of collaborations and collisions among various actors in civil society as well as their effects on the direction and content of democratization.
Civil society is not a monolithic entity. It is the main arena in which different classes and groups struggle to assume their own hegemony. During the process of democratization, suchstruggles can be transformed into explicit contests over the nature and scope of democracy. Civil society in the Philippines was a typical case. Although it is often said that the process of democratization in the Philippines reflected the interests of the conservative and dominant class, an extensive examination of the hegemonic struggles in civil society reveal a different picture of this democratic transition.
Section I discusses the analytical framework of this paper. Section II outlines schematically the different forces within civil society shortly after the assassination of Benigno Aquino in August1983, mainly based on ideology and class. Section III presents an empirical and descriptive analysis of the political process with particular focus on the hegemonic struggles in civil society until the collapse of the Marcos regime in February 1986.
This paper shows that the hegemonic struggles in civil society had a significant influence on the direction of democratization and that democratization was steered in an ambivalent direction beyond the interests of the dominant class primarily due to the counter-hegemony created by radical movements in civil society.
