民主制度之“踵”:家族式恩庇侍从关系与菲律宾政治

Democratic System's Achilles Heel: The Family-based Patron-client Relationship and the Philippine Political Life

菲律宾是一个恩庇侍从关系传统深厚的国家。在菲律宾,这种正式制度之外的非正式关系依托地方性的政治家族形成,呈现出菲律宾政治生活的核心特征以及与其他国家的恩庇侍从关系的最大区别所在。在菲律宾的政治体系中,不同政治家族形成不同的恩庇侍从网络,彼此之间相互竞争,一方面使菲律宾的选举制度受到严重的削弱,选举中舞弊、欺诈和暴力盛行;另一方面又完全地替代了菲律宾的政党制度,使菲律宾的政党衰弱而碎片化,易变性极强,成为政治家族的工具,失去利益聚合的功能,使下层民众的利益无法通过政党而被吸纳到政治体系之中。正是这种独特的非正式的家族式恩庇侍从关系,在其与国家正式制度的持续性互动中削弱甚至替代了正式制度的作用和功能,从而给菲律宾的民主制度带来消极影响。

The Philippines is a country with a strong tradition of patron-client relationship.In the Philippines,this informal relationship outside the formal system is based on a local political family,showing the core characteristics of the Philippine political life and is also the biggest difference from patron-client relationship in other countries.In the Philippine political system,different political families form different patron-client networks and compete with each other.On the one hand,the electoral system in the Philippines is severely weakened by patron-client relationship,and electoral fraud as well as violence is prevalent in elections;on the other hand,patron-client relationship completely replaces the Philippine party system,which make the Philippine political parties weak,fragmented,and highly fluid,so the political parties in the Philippines have become tools of the political families,losing their function of interest aggregation,and the interests of the lower classes cannot be absorbed into the political system through political parties.It is this unique informal family-based patron-client relationship that weakens or even replaces the role and function of state's formal institutions through the ongoing interaction with them.Therefore,this kind of patron-client relationship has a negative effect on the Philippine democratic system.