By Paul Rothman, Assistant Partnerships Officer at the Center for International Media Assistance in Washington, DC. This article first appeared in Center for International Media Assistance.  The last two years have been a tumultuous period for Filipino democracy. Since the People Power Revolution in 1986, the Philippines became something of a beacon for democratic development in a region beset by authoritarian rule. But in the face of President Duterte’s […]

This working paper problematizes the challenges to Philippine democracy through the lens of its democratic institutions. The paper argues the existence of democratic backsliding, which happens when a nominally democratic government infringes on political and civil rights or restricts political competition or accountability, and is characterized by (a) gradual breakdowns in the structures of freedom of assembly, organization, and speech, or the shrinking of civic […]