International And Domestic Political Interaction In The Process Of Philippine Democratic Transition (1986-2009) - An Analytical Framework

In the late 1980s, the collapse of the Marcos regime witnessed a key step of the process of Philippine democratization in the development of mankind's political civilization. As the first country that introduced the western democracy, Philippine was once known as showcase of American democracy in Asia . However, the process of Philippine democratization is full of twists and turns. The democratic transition undergoes a tortuous process, including the introduction of democracy, authority rule under the reign of Marcos, and regression of democratization. As the first country introducing the western democracy, why doesn't democracy bring domestic political stability and economic development to Philippine? At present, the majority of studies concerning democracy predicament in Philippine under the Marcos reign emphasize that the domestic politics is defective, and that the influence of international factors on the Philippine democratic transition is not attached great importance to. In particular, how do international factors play a role in the reform of domestic politics in Philippine? What relationship does it exist between international factors and the changes of domestic politics? Philippine's democratic transition is the interactive process between external factors (globalization under the international power) and internal ones (the political reform under the domestic power). The development of its internal system is mainly in accordance with the national tradition of political culture, economic development, and the changes of social structure. And international factors play the role of shaper and promoter in the political democratization of Philippine. Following the theory of The Second Image Reversed proposed by an American scholar Peter Gourevitch in the 1970s, the author takes the case of Philippine's democratic transition (1986-2009). The paper probes into Philippine's democratic transition from the angle of both domestic political changes and the influence of international factors, analyses the impact of the interaction between internalization and domestic politics on the democratic transition, systematically sums up the features of Philippine's democracy in the process of ASEAN integration, objectively evaluates the experience obtained during the transition, the existing difficulties and problems, and the way of adjustment and solution, and finally prospects the basic trend and the future of Philippine's democratization.The paper consists of five parts. The introduction mainly explains the reason for selecting the topic, the current state of the study, the methodology and the frame of the paper. Chapter two elaborates the important concepts involved in the democratic transition, and tries to build up an analysis model suitable for the reality of Philippine's democratic transition. Chapter three devotes to making clear the general view of the evolution of Philippine's democracy after the Marcos era and systematically concluding characteristics of the democratic transition during various stages. Chapter four makes an analysis of the motives and mechanism of Philippine's democratic transition. It attempts to explain it from perspectives of the domestic political changes and the internalization stress, emphasizing the significance of international factors on Philippine's democratic transition. Meanwhile, it also explores the conditions and methods that international power would adopt to affect the domestic political changes of Philippine. Chapter five discusses the restriction factors from the international and domestic perspectives. The last part makes an evaluation on the process of Philippine's democratization, and conducts a prospective thinking concerning the trend of Philippine's democratization in the future.