President Ferdinand Marcos was one of the longest-serving presidents of the Philippines. He took over power in 1965 but was forced out of office in the mid-eighties following a series of anti-government unrests against his increasingly dictatorial and corrupt rule. What are the major events that led to the collapse of the regime of Ferdinand Marcos? To start with, Marcos had set up an oligarchic government that undermined the capacity of the state to carry out wide national interests.
The oligarchs in Marcos’ regime used their position to protect and further their own personal interests in a way that compromised the national objectives (Seagraves 20). This led to massive failures in core areas such as liberalization of trade and the fight against graft. Other areas that were affected by the oligarchic setup during the rule of Marcos were land reforms, taxation and economic development.
Secondly, the president’s popularity waned after his first term in office. By 1972, the people of the Philippines had already shown an aversion to the way the country was being run by Ferdinand Marcos (Huntington 50). However, Marcos managed to stay in power till the mid-eighties due to electoral fraud because civic elections as measures that defined democracy in the Philippines were never competitive. This is due to the existence of the oligarchy that manipulated electoral outcomes so that it could continue to control key formal institutions in the country.
The cracks in the democracy of this country started to manifest themselves in the mid-seventies. This is the same time when a new class of elites emerged and started competing for wealth and power with the traditional elites and this competition produced a large middle class. This is the class that started radical movements in the Philippines, inspired by other movements that were fighting corruption in other Asian countries. One of the Targets of these movements was President Marcos and his cabal of oligarchs’ that had taken control of the formal institutions in the Philippines and personalized them. Ferdinand Marcos had succeeded in using the Machiavellian theories and principles to stay in power amid increasing dissent and these principles helped him to use terrorism and fraud to win presidential elections time and again (Bonner 98).
He had a big lust for power and his Machiavellian inclination especially the use of force helped him to silence dissenters. One of the issues that brought him onto a head-on collision with his political enemies was his subservience to the United States of America. Marcos was keen on promoting American interests and this is one of the factors that led to heated campaigns against his rule in the early eighties. High levels of corruption and use of force to quell dissent were other factors that motivated his enemies. Marcos was a constitutional authoritarian who would use the constitution to justify his Bonapartist actions.
He succeeded in bringing every institution that could be used against him under his control. These institutions include the media and the judiciary which he packed with his cronies and loyalists (Salonga 110). It is his economic policies at the start of the eighties that were his Achilles heels. The economic situation in the Philippines under these policies was grim and Marcos became a big disappointment. This created unrest within the country.
The elite class and the Catholics that were his main supporters shifted to the opposition that was actively mounting incessant campaigns against his removal. The assassination of Benigno Aquino, a former senator heightened the anti-Marcos campaigns and this culminated in his dethronement through a military coup in 1986. In conclusion, It is his oligarchic and constitutional dictatorship hidden under false democracy that led to the crumbling of his regime that can be said to be one of the best examples of “democratic despotism”.
Works Cited
Huntington, Samuel. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 1991.
Salonga, Jovito Presidential Plunder: The Quest for Marcos Ill-gotten Wealth. Manila: Regina Pub. Co. 2001.
Bonner, Raymond. Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcos’s and the Making of American Policy.NY: Times Books. 1998.
Seagraves, Sterling. The Marcos Dynasty. NY: Harper Collins. 1999.