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Chasing Freedom: The Philippines' Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence
How did Rodrigo Duterte earn the support of large segments of the Philippine middle class, despite imposing arbitrary rule and offering little tolerance for dissent? Has the Filipino middle class, heroes of the 1986 People Power Revolution, given up on democracy?
Chasing Freedom tells the story of the love/hate relationship of the Philippine middle class with democratic politics. It illuminates the historical roots and contingency of the Philippine middle-class's reticence about democracy, and makes visible the forms of power that have shaped and constrained middle-class imaginings of democracy and representations of themselves as political subjects. Drawing on historical archival work, discourse analysis and fieldwork interviews, the chapters trace the attitudes of the Filipino middle class from the time of American colonization in 1898 to the 2016 election of strongman Rodrigo Duterte. The argument is that democracy has been, and continues to be, lived in a deeply ambivalent way. The simultaneous saying of 'yes' and 'no' to democracy by citizens is one of the defining features of the Philippines' democratic journey. The prime source of this ambivalence, the book argues, is the Janus face of America's 'democratic imperialism', and the
deprecation inherent in the project of 'democratic tutelage'.
According to Webb, the Philippines is a bellwether case of what she calls democratic ambivalence. In an age when disenchantment with democracy is on the rise, it provides lessons of global importance. The book's empirical findings support a striking since ambivalence is not simply a 'pathology' of democracy, but one of its persistent features, the dynamics of ambivalence need to be at the heart of descriptive and normative accounts of how democracy works.
Chasing Freedom tells the story of the love/hate relationship of the Philippine middle class with democratic politics. It illuminates the historical roots and contingency of the Philippine middle-class's reticence about democracy, and makes visible the forms of power that have shaped and constrained middle-class imaginings of democracy and representations of themselves as political subjects. Drawing on historical archival work, discourse analysis and fieldwork interviews, the chapters trace the attitudes of the Filipino middle class from the time of American colonization in 1898 to the 2016 election of strongman Rodrigo Duterte. The argument is that democracy has been, and continues to be, lived in a deeply ambivalent way. The simultaneous saying of 'yes' and 'no' to democracy by citizens is one of the defining features of the Philippines' democratic journey. The prime source of this ambivalence, the book argues, is the Janus face of America's 'democratic imperialism', and the
deprecation inherent in the project of 'democratic tutelage'.
According to Webb, the Philippines is a bellwether case of what she calls democratic ambivalence. In an age when disenchantment with democracy is on the rise, it provides lessons of global importance. The book's empirical findings support a striking since ambivalence is not simply a 'pathology' of democracy, but one of its persistent features, the dynamics of ambivalence need to be at the heart of descriptive and normative accounts of how democracy works.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2022
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December 7, 2022
This is a good brief and condensed summary of Philippine politics over the past century, from American colonization to the election of Rodrigo Duterte. My issue with the book is that behind the summary is the supposed aim of explaining the historical events through the lens of “democratic ambivalence”. All it comes down to is the idea that the middle classes don’t fully trust theoretical democratic ideals— that in reality they’re skeptical of a “pure democracy” and so hedge their bets by compromising on it by, for example, electing authoritarian leaders to enforce “democracy”.
In a broader sense it’s in spirit with the recent writings of Wataru Kusaka and Lisandro Claudio, in which they push back on elitist perceptions of the masses as ignorant or stupid, and argue that they have sound internal logic. However, in this case, Webb focuses on “the middle classes”. The categorization is never convincingly established and all of her writing is centered on general events that center around Manila, yet used to express an overall Filipino middle class point of view. And this almost singular perspective is argued to have persisted through the past hundred years as this feeling of “democratic ambivalence”.
Overall, because of its vague theoretical framework, I would not recommend this book for people who are already knowledgeable about Philippine political history. For those who are not as familiar with it, this book has a lot of useful and well-cited summaries that could aid in diving deeper into each topic. For a similar book that has more resonance, I’d recommend “Moral Politics in the Philippines” by Wataru Kusaka.
In a broader sense it’s in spirit with the recent writings of Wataru Kusaka and Lisandro Claudio, in which they push back on elitist perceptions of the masses as ignorant or stupid, and argue that they have sound internal logic. However, in this case, Webb focuses on “the middle classes”. The categorization is never convincingly established and all of her writing is centered on general events that center around Manila, yet used to express an overall Filipino middle class point of view. And this almost singular perspective is argued to have persisted through the past hundred years as this feeling of “democratic ambivalence”.
Overall, because of its vague theoretical framework, I would not recommend this book for people who are already knowledgeable about Philippine political history. For those who are not as familiar with it, this book has a lot of useful and well-cited summaries that could aid in diving deeper into each topic. For a similar book that has more resonance, I’d recommend “Moral Politics in the Philippines” by Wataru Kusaka.
Displaying 1 of 1 review