Electoral Reform and the Prospects of Voter Engagement in the Philippines: 1972 - 2022

• Main Authors: Lao, Maria Elissa J, Rivera, Miguel Paolo P
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2023
• Subjects: Elections; Martial Law; Voter Education; Party Lists; Electoral Reform; Democracy; Asian History; History; Political History; Political Science
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/polsci-faculty-pubs/54; https://unipress.ateneo.edu/product/martial-law-philippines-lessons-and-legacies-1972%E2%80%932022
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

From Martial Law to the present, electoral outcomes have largely been the paramount indicator of political and social change in the Philippines. This is prevalent in the view that elections are seen as opportunities to “reset” the political fates of individual and collective actors. Against the backdrop of an electorate operating within social institutions that have not fundamentally changed since the 1986 Snap Elections; we seek to interrogate the changing threats against democratization in the country by mapping how major electoral reform actors have framed and presented these threats to the public and how these actors have sought to organize societal responses against these threats. Through this institutional view of electoral reform actors; we ask ourselves the question of the value of elections as a viable arena of contestation for democratization: what have we gained since Martial Law? What have we missed and what are the possible paths forward?