The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines

The past few years have seen an emergence of populist leaders around the world, who have not only accrued but also maintained support despite rampant criticism, governance failures, and the ongoing COVID pandemic. The Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte is the best illustration of this trend, with app...

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Main Authors: DULAY, Dean C., HICKEN, Allen, HOLMES, Ronald
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3743
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5001/viewcontent/Duterte_JEAS_av.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.soss_research-50012023-05-22T03:32:20Z The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines DULAY, Dean C. HICKEN, Allen HOLMES, Ronald The past few years have seen an emergence of populist leaders around the world, who have not only accrued but also maintained support despite rampant criticism, governance failures, and the ongoing COVID pandemic. The Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte is the best illustration of this trend, with approval ratings rarely dipping below 80 percent. What explains his high levels of robust public support? We argue that Duterte is an ethnopopulist who uses ethnic appeals in combination with insider vs. outsider rhetoric to garner and maintain public support. Moreover, we argue that ethnic affiliation is a main driver of support for Duterte, and more important than alternative factors such as age, education, gender, or urban vs. rural divides. We provide evidence of Duterte's marriage of ethnic and populist appeals, then evaluate whether ethnicity predicts support for Duterte, using 15 rounds of nationally representative public opinion data. Identifying with a non-Tagalog ethnicity (like Duterte) leads to an 8 percent increase in approval for Duterte, significantly larger than any other explanatory factor. Among Duterte supporters, a non-Tagalog ethnicity is associated with 19 percent increase in strong versus mild support. Ethnicity is the only positive and significant result, suggesting that it strongly explains why Duterte's support remains robust. Alternative explanations, such as social desirability bias and alternative policy considerations, do not explain our results. 2023-01-01T08:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3743 info:doi/10.1017/jea.2022.29 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5001/viewcontent/Duterte_JEAS_av.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection School of Social Sciences eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University populism ethnicity Duterte Philippines Asian Studies Political Science Social Influence and Political Communication
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic populism
ethnicity
Duterte
Philippines
Asian Studies
Political Science
Social Influence and Political Communication
spellingShingle populism
ethnicity
Duterte
Philippines
Asian Studies
Political Science
Social Influence and Political Communication
DULAY, Dean C.
HICKEN, Allen
HOLMES, Ronald
The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines
description The past few years have seen an emergence of populist leaders around the world, who have not only accrued but also maintained support despite rampant criticism, governance failures, and the ongoing COVID pandemic. The Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte is the best illustration of this trend, with approval ratings rarely dipping below 80 percent. What explains his high levels of robust public support? We argue that Duterte is an ethnopopulist who uses ethnic appeals in combination with insider vs. outsider rhetoric to garner and maintain public support. Moreover, we argue that ethnic affiliation is a main driver of support for Duterte, and more important than alternative factors such as age, education, gender, or urban vs. rural divides. We provide evidence of Duterte's marriage of ethnic and populist appeals, then evaluate whether ethnicity predicts support for Duterte, using 15 rounds of nationally representative public opinion data. Identifying with a non-Tagalog ethnicity (like Duterte) leads to an 8 percent increase in approval for Duterte, significantly larger than any other explanatory factor. Among Duterte supporters, a non-Tagalog ethnicity is associated with 19 percent increase in strong versus mild support. Ethnicity is the only positive and significant result, suggesting that it strongly explains why Duterte's support remains robust. Alternative explanations, such as social desirability bias and alternative policy considerations, do not explain our results.
format text
author DULAY, Dean C.
HICKEN, Allen
HOLMES, Ronald
author_facet DULAY, Dean C.
HICKEN, Allen
HOLMES, Ronald
author_sort DULAY, Dean C.
title The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines
title_short The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines
title_full The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines
title_fullStr The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines
title_full_unstemmed The persistence of ethnopopulist support: The case of Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines
title_sort persistence of ethnopopulist support: the case of rodrigo duterte's philippines
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2023
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3743
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5001/viewcontent/Duterte_JEAS_av.pdf
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