A Study Of Patron-Client Relations In Philippine Party Politic

Since the 1960 s and 1970 s,patronage relations have entered the field of Southeast Asian studies as a research approach and have now become an important tool for studying the political institutions and social structures of Southeast Asian countries.Among Southeast Asian countries,the Philippines has a long history of patronage relations,which has gone through the stages of traditional patronage relations between individuals during the pre-colonial period,patronage relations of oppressive nature during the modern colonial period,and patronage relations of political parties during the democratic transition period.During this development,the link between traditional patronage relations and party politics and electoral competition in the Philippines was strengthened,and patronage relations thus rose to the realm of state resource allocation and formed the basis of formal power.With the country’s independence and continued development,Filipinos overthrew the more than 20-year authoritarian rule of Marcos in 1986 and entered a period of democracy.Since then,there has been a dramatic shift in the development of party politics in the Philippines,from a two-party rotating rule in the 1940 s and 1950 s to a multi-party situation.On the surface,the development of party politics in the Philippines is similar to that of multi-party competition in the West,but the path of party politics in the Philippines is much more difficult than that of multi-party competition in the West.A closer look at the essence of the development of party politics in the Philippines reveals that the Philippines has formed party politics with patronage relations,and such patronage relations have a direct impact on its domestic party politics.This paper attempts to study the patronage relationship in Philippine party politics by deconstructing four dimensions of party politics,namely,the establishment and organizational structure within political parties,membership switching and party alliance formation among political parties,the vote buying and voting process between candidates and voters in party election contests,and the operation of party government.By analyzing the presentation and operation of the patronage relationship in the development of party politics,we explore The impact of patronage relations on Philippine party politics.