政党システムと冷戦の国内化、1946–1948 年

フィリピンにおける二大政党間の対立と協調

抄録

In 1946, a disagreement over collaboration during the Japanese occupation emerged within the Nacionalista party in the Philippines. As a result of this disagreement, the Nacionalista party, which had maintained a dominant position in the party system for more than 30 years under US colonial rule, divided into the Liberal Party and the Nacionalista Party. The two major parties thereafter opposed each other over various issues and competed for the presidency and control of Congress until the declaration of martial law in 1972.
How did the change from a predominantly single-party system to a two-major-party system occur, what changes appeared in the party system in the 1940s and 1950s, and what was the difference in the two parties’ policy orientation? Previous literature on Philippine politics has failed even to pose these questions because of the emphasis on socioeconomic structure, social cleavage, or electoral institutions which tend to stress domestic structural factors and continuity of the politics.
This paper focuses on how the political cleavage emerged and its relationship to policy processes when national debates occurred. It also explores how this political cleavage transformed under the two-major-party system. The policy processes in two cases deserve close examination. The first case is the policy process over the Bell Trade Act that would determine Philippine–US economic relations, and about which the two major parties clashed. The ruling Liberal Party contended that the Bell Trade Act was beneficial, because the Act would guarantee economic benefits derived from the special relationship with the US, while the opposition Nacionalista Party favored economic nationalism and claimed the Act infringed political independence. The second case concerns the development of policy for restoration of social order in the Central Luzon area. The two major parties understood the social disorder in the context of the Cold War and therefore agreed that resolution was essential, but each condemned the other’s strategy: the Liberal party blamed the Nacionalista Party for its presumed link with the militant left, while the Nacionalista Party denounced the Liberal Party for not bringing peace to the area. By focusing on political cleavage, this paper sheds new light on the significance of policy process in understanding Philippine politics.