Cacique democracy is a term that has been used to describe what has been observed as the feudal political system of the Philippines, where in many parts of the country local leaders remain very strong, with warlord-like powers. [1] The term was originally coined by Irish-American political scientist Benedict Anderson. [2]
The Philippines was a colony of Spain from the late sixteenth century until the Philippine Revolution of 1898. But the United States, despite promising independence like Cuba, bought the country and wrestled control, succeeding by 1902. The U.S. administration subsequently introduced many commercial, political and administrative changes, trade limits, agricultural and immigration sanctions, and machine importation restrictions. They were sometimes quite progressive[ citation needed ] and directed towards the "modernization" of government and commerce in the Philippines. However, the local traditional Filipino elites, being better educated and better connected than much of the local population, were often able to take advantage of the changes to bolster their positions.[ citation needed ]
The Spanish word cacique comes from the Taíno word kassiquan, meaning "to keep house." [3] In Spanish America, Brazil, Spain, and Portugal, the term also has come to mean a political boss or leader who exercises significant power in the political system known as caciquismo , [4] and is sometimes translated as "Bossism." [5] In various Austronesian languages, datu , along with its cognates, is a title similar to cacique, and had historically been conferred upon the ruler of a maṇḍala or precolonial fiefdom.
A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency. Like the term tyrant, and to a lesser degree autocrat, dictator came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive rule. In modern usage the term dictator is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power.
Politics in the Philippines are governed by a three-branch system of government. The country is a democracy, with a president who is directly elected by the people and serves as both the head of state and the head of government. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and is a powerful political figure. A president may only hold office for one six-year term. The bicameral Congress consists of two separate bodies: the Senate, with members elected at-large across the country, and the larger House of Representatives, with members chosen mostly from specific geographic districts. The Congress performs legislative functions. The judiciary is overseen by the Supreme Court of the Philippines and has extensive review jurisdiction over judgments issued by other governmental and administrative institutions.
A republic, based on the Latin phrase res publica, is a state in which political power rests with the public through their representatives—in contrast to a monarchy.
Mestizo is a person of mixed European, Indigenous & African blood in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ancestors are Indigenous and/or African. The term was used as an ethno-racial exonym for mixed-race castas that evolved during the Spanish Empire. It was a formal label for individuals in official documents, such as censuses, parish registers, Inquisition trials, and others. Priests and royal officials might have classified persons as mestizos, but individuals also used the term in self-identification. With the Bourbon reforms and the independence of the Americas, the caste system disappeared and terms like "mestizo" fell in popularity.
The barangay, historically referred to as barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan areas, the term often refers to an inner city neighborhood, a suburb, a suburban neighborhood, or even a borough. The word barangay originated from balangay, a type of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migrated to the Philippines.
A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separation of powers. This system was first introduced in the United States.
The term Don abbreviated as D., is an honorific prefix primarily used in Spain and Hispanic America, and with different connotations also in Italy, Portugal and its former colonies, and formerly in the Philippines.
In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity. The machine's power is based on the ability of the boss or group to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.
A caudillo is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise English translation for the term, though it is often used interchangeably with "military dictator," "warlord" and "strongman". The term is historically associated with Spain and Hispanic America, after virtually all of the regions in the latter won independence in the early nineteenth century.
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people have provided to artists such as musicians, painters, and sculptors. It can also refer to the right of bestowing offices or church benefices, the business given to a store by a regular customer, and the guardianship of saints. The word patron derives from the Latin patronus ('patron'), one who gives benefits to his clients.
A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique, was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European contact with those places. The term is a Spanish transliteration of the Taíno word kasike.
Communal work is a gathering for mutually accomplishing a task or for communal fundraising. Communal work provided manual labour to others, especially for major projects such as barn raising, "bees" of various kinds, log rolling, and subbotniks. Different words have been used to describe such gatherings.
In politics, a boss is a person who controls a faction or local branch of a political party. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves; most historical bosses did not, at least during the times of their greatest influence. Numerous officeholders in that unit are subordinate to the single boss in party affairs. Bosses may base their power on the support of numerous voters, usually organized voting blocs, and manage a coalition of these blocs and various other stakeholders. When the party wins, they typically control appointments in their unit, and have a voice at the higher levels.
Caciquism is a network of political power wielded by local leaders called "caciques", aimed at influencing electoral outcomes. It is a feature of some modern-day societies with incomplete democratization.
A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
In early Philippine history, barangay is the term historically used by scholars to describe the complex sociopolitical units that were the dominant organizational pattern among the various peoples of the Philippine archipelago in the period immediately before the arrival of European colonizers. Academics refer to these settlements using the technical term "polity", but they are usually simply called "barangays".
Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the decision-making process, in organizations employing industrial democracy they also have the final decisive power.
Kedatuan were historical semi-independent city-states or principalities throughout ancient Maritime Southeast Asia in the present-day Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In a modern Indonesian/Malay sense, they could be described as kingdoms or polities. The earliest written record mentioning the term kadatuan was the 7th-century Srivijayan Telaga Batu and Kota Kapur inscription from Sumatra, Indonesia.
Idacansás, Idacansas, Idacanzas or Iduakanzas was a mythical cacique who was said to have been the first priest of the sacred city of Sugamuxi, present-day Sogamoso, Colombia, then part of the territories of the Muisca. He is characterized by his great magical powers as he could make rain and hail and transmit diseases and warmth.
Early polities in what is now the Philippines were small entities known as barangays, although some larger states were established following the arrival of Hinduism and Islam through regional trade networks. The arrival of Spanish settlers began a period of Spanish expansion which led to the creation of the Captaincy General of the Philippines, governed out of Manila. While technically part of New Spain, the Philippines functioned mostly autonomously. The reliance on native leaders to help govern led to the creation of an elite class known as the principalia. Spanish control was never firmly established over much of its claimed territory, with some inland and Islamic regions remaining effectively independent.