This volume is an excellent introduction to contemporary Filipino political and philosophical mind. It examines liberal versus radical democratic theory through the prism of Philippine political experience, especially the challenges of the rise of Rodrigo Duterte and the re-emergence of the Mindanao agenda. It is political philosophy at its best, de-abstracted by local conditions. Abstract political and liberal concepts receive concrete characterizations and articulations by the various authors.
Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s critique of harmonious liberal consensus based on rational deliberation, Prof. Maboloc argues for “radical” agonistic democracy, where antagonisms and conflicts are inherent to politics and "adversaries" (rather than "enemies") are contesting for opposing interests and conflicting visions of the future and the good life. It is a better understanding of politics in the context of nation-building and rectifying social injustices in the face of post-colonial hangover, oligarchic and class rule and ethnic and religious disparities.
The contributors argue that Philippine democracy has been shaped less by moral unanimity than by enduring conflicts, antagonism, and struggles for recognition. The book situates Dutertismo within longer histories of elite domination, Ilustrado politicians, failed liberal reforms after EDSA, and the marginalization of the Bangsamoro, reading it as a contested response to structural injustice rather than a mere aberration of populism.
This book has universal importance by insisting on implicated (rather than abstract) geographic and mental relations—the view and understanding of the Philippines from Davao City is totally different than from Manilla—including the hardships of defending rural and urban environments versus mining and industrial interests and the complex relations between Muslims and Christians in Mindanao, in a quasi-Israeli context, where two peoples struggle for land, identity, and existence.
By engaging debates on authoritarianism, radical politics, civil society, and substantive democracy, this volume offers a Southern perspective on how democracy or liberalism are reconfigured in contexts marked by inequality, exclusion, and unresolved historical grievances. The different chapters illustrate the fruitful intellectual dialectics between the particularities of the Philippines and Mindanao and the seemingly universal language of primarily Western moral and political theories and concepts.
- Dr. Daniel Mishori
The New School of the Environment
Tel Aviv University