one - Introduction

Summary

The Philippines' march into the twenty-first century is shaped by two defining themes in the last two decades: the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship leading to its downfall in 1986, and the continuing struggle to provide the foundations of economic growth and development in a democratizing order, like all regime changes and transition phases, this process has been difficult and contested, encumbered by the failures of the past, the uncertainties of the present, and yet animated by the promises of the future.

Fourteen years of authoritarian rule under Marcos left an oppressive legacy: an economy in tatters and a people divided at a time of momentous changes in the world. In the aftermath of this deeply troubled immediate past, the country struggles to put together the political leadership and the social constituency that could spur and sustain economic growth and development in a politically stable democratic order. This project not only seeks to resolve the country's festering national crisis. If successful, it will highlight in a powerful way a counterpoise to the conventional wisdom in Asia about the incompatibilities between democracy and economic development.

The Philippines' passage into the next century is made doubly significant as it encompasses a moment marking the centennial of the first anticolonial revolution in Asia launched in 1896 by Filipino revolutionaries against Spanish colonial rule. In 1996, the country also marks fifty years of formal independence from American colonial rule. Richly symbolic as rituals of national self-appraisal and regeneration, these celebrations reinforce in yet another profound way the acuteness of the national feeling and determination that this time there can be no failure of will and practice.

This interpretive essay seeks to evaluate the most significant events in the country's last two decades in order to understand better the structures and forces underpinning the process of change and continuity in three interlinked historical periods: the struggle against the authoritarian rule of Marcos; the Aquino presidency; and the first three years of the Ramos administration. Finally, the essay seeks to identify important trends and developments that help shape events and conjunctures in the years to come.