Cacique democracy

Last updated

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]

Contents

History

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 ]

Etymology

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.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dictator</span> Political leader who possesses absolute power

A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency.

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.

<i>Mestizo</i> Spanish term to denote a person with mixed European and non-European indigenous ancestry

Mestizo is a person of mixed European and indigenous non-European ancestry 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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barangay</span> Administrative division of the Philippines

A barangay, historically referred to as a 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidential system</span> Form of government

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 head of government is in most cases also the head of state. In a presidential system, the head of government is directly or indirectly elected by a group of citizens and is not responsible to the legislature, and the legislature cannot dismiss the president except in extraordinary cases. A presidential system contrasts with a parliamentary system, where the head of government comes to power by gaining the confidence of an elected legislature.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political machine</span> Type of political group

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.

<i>Caudillo</i> Type of personalist leader wielding political power

A caudillo is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise English translation of caudillo, though it is often used interchangeably with "warlord" and "strongman". The term is historically associated with Spain, and with Hispanic America after virtually all of the region 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.

<i>Cacique</i> Hispanic term for indigenous American chief

A cacique, sometime 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communal work</span> Gathering for mutually accomplishing a task or for fundraising

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political boss</span> Person who controls votes

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. Reformers typically allege that political bosses are corrupt. This corruption is usually tied to patronage: the exchange of jobs, lucrative contracts and other political favors for votes, campaign contributions and sometimes outright bribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caciquism</span> Network of political influence exercised by local potentates known as "caciques".

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sangley</span> Archaic terms used in the Philippines

Sangley and Mestizo de Sangley are archaic terms used in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era to describe respectively a person of pure overseas Chinese ancestry and a person of mixed Chinese and native Filipino ancestry. The Sangley Chinese were ancestors to both modern Chinese Filipinos and modern Filipino mestizo descendants of the Mestizos de Sangley., who were mestizos under the Spanish colonial empire, classified together with other Filipino mestizos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filipino Mestizos</span> Racial identifier

In the Philippines, Filipino Mestizo, or colloquially Tisoy, is a name used to refer to people of mixed native Filipino and any foreign ancestry. The word mestizo itself is of Spanish origin; it was first used in the Americas to describe people of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry. Currently and historically, the Chinese mestizos were and are still ordinarily the most populous subgroup among mestizos; they have historically been very influential in the creation of Filipino nationalism. The Spanish mestizos also historically and currently exist as a smaller population, but remain a significant minority among mestizos which historically enjoyed prestigious status in Philippine society during Spanish colonial times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal chief</span> Leader of a tribal society or chiefdom

A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Precolonial barangay</span> Complex sociopolitical units in precolonial Philippines

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".

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political history of the Philippines</span> Aspect of history surrounding the Philippines politics

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.

References

  1. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Cacique Democracy'
  2. Anderson, Benedict (2010). "Cacique Democracy in the Philippines: Origins and Dreams". In Hicken, Allen (ed.). Politics of modern Southeast Asia. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN   9780415450614. OCLC   261176117.
  3. The Catastrophe of Modernity: Tragedy and the Nation in Latin American Literature. Bucknell University Press. 2004. pp. 136–. ISBN   978-0-8387-5561-7 . Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  4. Robert Kern, The caciques: oligarchical politics and the system of caciquismo in the Luso-Hispanic world. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press [1973]
  5. Sidel, John Thayer (1999). Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines. Stanford University Press. ISBN   978-0-8047-3746-3.