Performative or Substantive? Democratic Resilience after Autocratization in the Philippines

Aries A. Arugay

• Publisher: ISEAS
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9789815361568
• Subtopic: Democracy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In the Philippines, civil society and social movements were traditionally viewed as robust pro-democratic actors and bulwarks of democracy. Under Duterte, however, democratic norms and institutions were undermined, resulting in an autocratizing episode that used threats, repression, coercion and outright violence. The scholarly literature on democratic resilience has coventionally relied on pro-democratic actors such as elected politicians from the opposition and civil society to restore democratic credentials and recalibrate the regime after autocratization. While Ferdinand Marcos Jr did not make any normative commitment to redemocratize the country after winning the presidential elections in 2022, his actions and his government's policies, such as giving space to the pro-democratic opposition and civil society and undoing former president Rodrigo Duterte's autocratic policies such as the war on drugs and anti-communist campaign, have been seen as indications of Philippine democracy's resilience. The emergent literature on performative politics and governance is a useful conceptual frame to analyse the unusual sources of democratic recovery in the Philippines after the Duterte administration (2016–22). Marcos Jr. might not be an intrinsic pro-democratic leader, but his vulnerability to pressure from various sectors of society and his exposé of large-scale corruption of public infrastructure funds led to his embrace of the necessary economic and political reforms to build democratic resilience. This paper argues that renewed external linkages with the West, combined with performativity of contingent pro-democratic elites and patronage networks, opened opportunities to address Philippine democracy's deficits, including holding the Dutertes accountable. It suggests that a superficial commitment to re-democratization requires sustained pressure for diagonal accountability from a reinvigorated civil society and the societal sphere. The case of the Philippines shows that democratic resilience can be instigated by actors normally not considered to be democracy's catalysts.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Executive Summary
• Performative or Substantive? Democratic Resilience After Autocratization in the Philippines