Violence and Impunity: Democratic Backsliding in the Philippines and the 2022 Elections

IF 1.4 4区社会学 Q1 AREA STUDIES

Pacific Affairs Pub Date : 2022-09-01 DOI:10.5509/2022953575

S. Iglesias

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

As president from 2016 to 2022, Rodrigo Duterte captured the judiciary, dominated the legislature, attacked the media, and presided over a campaign of mass killing, leaving an estimated 30,000 alleged drug criminals dead. Despite wielding vast amounts of power, Duterte stepped down after the national elections on May 9, 2022 in a largely peaceful transfer of power to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son and namesake of the former dictator deposed in 1986. Why did Duterte amass power without causing full democratic collapse into authoritarian rule? The Philippines experienced backsliding to competitive authoritarianism: while elections remain free and somewhat fair, other features of democracy like civil liberties and political freedoms have eroded badly because of mass violence. The Philippine case demonstrates the autocratizing e ect of an emerging form of political violence: a focused campaign of state terror that produces fear and electoral success. I present evidence from two cases—the national "war on drugs" and its local antecedent in Davao City—to explain how violence escalates, provokes accountability, evades culpability, and contributes to democratic backsliding without immediate collapse to authoritarianism. With the election of Marcos Jr., the impunity of the former incumbent is likely to become institutionalized, and democratic backsliding is unlikely to be reversed.

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暴力和有罪不罚:菲律宾民主倒退和2022年选举

罗德里戈·杜特尔特（Rodrigo Duterte）在2016年至2022年担任总统期间，控制了司法机构，主导了立法机构，攻击了媒体，并主持了一场大规模杀戮运动，估计造成3万名涉嫌毒品犯罪者死亡。尽管拥有大量权力，杜特尔特还是在2022年5月9日的全国选举后下台，基本上是和平地将权力移交给小费迪南德·马科斯，他是1986年被废黜的前独裁者的儿子和同名者。为什么杜特尔特在没有导致民主全面崩溃成为独裁统治的情况下积聚权力？菲律宾经历了向竞争性威权主义的倒退：虽然选举仍然是自由和公平的，但由于大规模暴力，公民自由和政治自由等民主的其他特征已经受到严重侵蚀。菲律宾的案件表明了一种新出现的政治暴力形式的独裁效应：一场集中的国家恐怖运动，产生恐惧并在选举中取得成功。我提供了两个案例的证据——全国“禁毒战争”及其在达沃市的地方先例——来解释暴力如何升级、引发问责、逃避罪责，并在不立即崩溃为威权主义的情况下导致民主倒退。随着小马科斯的当选，前现任总统有罪不罚的现象可能会制度化，民主倒退的趋势不太可能逆转。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Pacific Affairs AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Pacific Affairs has, over the years, celebrated and fostered a community of scholars and people active in the life of Asia and the Pacific. It has published scholarly articles of contemporary significance on Asia and the Pacific since 1928. Its initial incarnation from 1926 to 1928 was as a newsletter for the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), but since May 1928, it has been published continuously as a quarterly under the same name. The IPR was a collaborative organization established in 1925 by leaders from several YMCA branches in the Asia Pacific, to “study the conditions of the Pacific people with a view to the improvement of their mutual relations.”