6　フィリピン市民社会勢力の地方政治権力獲得

抄録

The democratization and decentralization that has spread among many developing countries, for instance, the Philippines, has led to the problem of “Local Bossism.” The term refers to elite domination of the local political economy based on a monopoly of political power that gives the local economic elite the authority to allocate national resources in the locality. Local elites tend to win election through patron-client relationships which involve election strategies such as vote-buying and coercion. They also attempt to accumulate wealth by abusing power delegated to local chief executives through decentralization. This includes unfair preferential treatment of their family members, cronies, and clients, without maintaining the welfare of local poor and “ordinary” residents. Monopoly of political power and dominance of development shares by local elites prevents fair, just socioeconomic development that contributes to improvement of poor, ordinary residents’ lives. However, local democratic political power that explains policies and philosophy to voters and obtains consent from them started to emerge in the Philippines with the rise of civil society forces that do improve lives of poor or ordinary residents. This local democratic political power established bonds of trust with local residents and implemented sound development through good governance that contributes to improving poor and ordinary residents’ lives. This case demonstrates the possibility of avoiding maldevelopment through political reform encouraged by deepening democracy and development of civil society, even in other developing countries with similar problems post democratization and decentralization.