Political Dynasties and How and Why They Stay in Power

Society, in general, has always been about the haves and have-nots, the cool kids and the
losers, the smart ones and the dumb ones. Maybe it is human nature that there is a satisfaction in
being better than someone at something. It feels good to one up someone and know that youre
not the worst. Entitlement starts to sink in when you start to feel as if you deserve better than
someone just because youre better than them at a certain aspect. It completely disregards the
notion that each person is different and someone may be better than others at something but still,
there are people who are better than someone at something. Once this point of view becomes a
collective consciousness, it becomes elitism.
Elitism is a point of view where only the best deserve the best. Only they are allowed to
dominate society and that they should be the ones to rule because they know whats best. This
would work well in a trustee model type of government where the people elect the leaders and
trust them to make the decisions thats best for the people. As it has been proven time and time
again in history, the leaders do not always have the publics best interest in mind.
How we describe what the best is varies. There are many different kinds of elites. There
are the power elites who are the traditional lawmakers. They are those who have the power to
make policies that can affect the citizens, economy, etc. of the country. They are the ones that
have the most direct access to power. Another is the resource elites. They are the ones who have
the resources to production. Examples of these are the owners of transnational corporations who
own the means of production. They are, in the grand scheme of things, the oil that makes the
machine run smoothly. Idea elites are the learned. They are the ones who have achieved a certain
level of knowledge where they can use that knowledge to climb up the social ladder. They are
those who can influence the power elites by sharing their ideologies or by advising them on the
correct strategy on how to use the power that they directly have. These elites usually end up in
the ruling class and since it is innate to look out for ourselves more than others, they end up
manipulating the government to serve their own self-interests. This is how an oligarchy is
developed.
An oligarchy, as described by Aristotle, is the rule of the few for the benefit of the few. It
is a government where only the interests of the few are recognized. It does not cater to the public

at all. It is a form of concentrated minority power. Usually, states with an oligarchy have only a
few affluent families who pass on the power from one generation to the next.
Political dynasties are the epitome of elitism and oligarchy. This practice has been around
for a very long time in the Philippines. It even predates colonization where the role of the
position of the datu can be inherited and passed on from one generation to another. The datus
main claim to power is their prowess as a warrior. Their position differs from Europes monarchy
in the Middle Ages where they do not have a divine right to their power. They can easily be
overthrown once they are proved unfit to rule the barangay they oversee and another is a better
fit for the role.
This system was scrapped and switched with the encomienda system at the start of the
Spanish Colonization. They were assigned to be the principales of their barangay and given
incentives by the Spaniards for their loyalty. This created an even bigger class divide between
them and their constituents when before, they were still incorporated in the daily lives of the
people compared to their principales days when they were merely glorified tax collectors for the
King of Spain. This led to a sense of entitlement for the principales and they started to see
themselves as a power elite.
When the Philippines switched colonizers, these principales were eager to collaborate
with the Americans to maintain their elite status. A historian said the structure and operation of
Filipino national politics had its origins in the municipal and provincial elections of 1901-1902
and in the proliferation of political networks and alliances that came into being as local elites
competed for political power through the electoral process. Though this was more than a
century ago, it can still be seen in our political system today.
As mentioned before, a political dynasty is what happens should oligarchy and elitism
have a love child. It is the lethal combination of both systems. For discussion purposes, let us say
that to be a president, youd need to know how to run a country well. To be able to do that, youd
need to be well educated. Given the education system that exists in the Philippines today, only
the ones who can afford quality education can attain quality education. So with the kinds of elites
discussed before, youd need to be a resource elite to be able to be an idea elite and so once you
succeed in being both, then you can be a power elite with direct access to power. This then
perpetuates a system where the power elites are also resource elites therefore they can make

policies that benefit them the most without necessarily prioritizing the welfare of the masses.
This becomes a cycle where power is only exchanged in the hands of a few.
It is very obvious during election season that the elites are favoured more. Though some
people do pass the criteria to run for office, COMELEC still weeds out the nuisance candidates
or those who cannot afford to campaign. This is not the people but the system choosing the
resource elites over the regular people.
In a paper by Yusingco, he states two important values in our pre-colonial society that
have been lost in time. The first is the fundamental belief that rulers have the duty to exercise
good leadership in order to keep their privileged position in the community and second, the
core principle that it is the community that holds the power to choose its ruler and no one else.
He also reiterated that these losses are critical because modern political dynasties actually
sprung out from this void in our political culture.
He also mentions that this culture has been embedded in our culture and one of the main
proponents of this is the elitist mindset of the people. When discussing elitism, usually only the
point of view of the elite is discussed. Its almost always how they view themselves. There is
another side to the elitist mindset and that is how the other views the elites. One of the reasons
why political dynasties continue to be prevalent is that the people continue to vote for them
because the people themselves believe that they are the best and that there are no other options.
They are trapped in the system that only dictates the peoples choices without showing the
people that there is an alternative and that is for the people to take the reigns themselves. This
reminds me of a quote in a book by Benny Lawrence: If you dont break out of the rules of the
game, then the choices you make arent really choices at all. True democracy starts when the
people are truly in charge.

References:

Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. (2013). Political Dynasties in the Philippines. Retrieved 2016,
from Why Nations Fall: http://whynationsfail.com/blog/2013/1/9/political-dynasties-inthe-philippines.html
Boothe, I. (2006). Different kinds of elites (and different kinds of elitism). Retrieved 2016, from
Root Work: http://rootwork.org/blog/2006/05/different-kinds-elites-different-kindselitism
Dal B, E., Dal B, P., & Snyder, J. (2009). Political dynasties. The Review of Economic
Studies, 76(1), 115-142.
Johnson, P. M. (n.d.). Elite (elitist) theory. Retrieved 2016, from A Glossary of Political
Economy Terms: http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/elite_theory
Paterno, B. (2014). The Philippines Must Break the Power of Political Dynasties. Retrieved
2016, from The Global Anticorruption Blog: Law, Social Science, and Policy:
https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2014/12/01/the-philippines-must-break-the-powerof-political-dynasties/
Winters, J. A. (2014). Oligarchy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Yusingco, M. H. (n.d.). A BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW OF POLITICAL DYNASTIES IN
THE PHILIPPINES. Retrieved 2016, from Academia:
https://www.academia.edu/8202010/A_BRIEF_HISTORICAL_REVIEW_OF_POLITIC
AL_DYNASTIES_IN_THE_PHILIPPINES