College of Arts and Sciences 

First Semester, SY 2021-2022 

Introduction to Public Administration
Midterm Examination

Name: Benette Emmanuel D. Estrada 2AB – PLSC

Passed to: Prof. Kristopher Navales 10/27/2021 

1. In his book Political Parties, written in 1911, Robert Michels argues that most
representative systems deteriorate towards an oligarchy or particracy. Do you agree
with the statement?

Yes, I firmly believe with all the knowledge history has provided on how
every form of government that has been tested left a brand kit to how it affected a
certain nation in which it once prevailed. Truly, Oligarchy and Particracy form of
government can both be damaging to representative system like Democracy.

For one, Oligarchy is a form of government to which the power of authority is

held by the wealthy few, and that they exercise its power to benefit themselves and
that they have no have no qualms of charity for the poor. Second, Particracy is a kind
of government in which political parties are the primary basis of rule, basically, the
exact opposite of the kind of government and constitution that our society live by.

Moreover, as to what our present-day constitution has embedded in the minds

of every Filipino that by the blessings of independence and democracy, every life of
every Filipino citizen shall be in conformity. And this is clearly in contrast to what the
latter form of government is well known for, and that it addresses the question of
whether or not an Oligarchy and Particracy form of government can lead a State into a
gross deterioration.
 Finally, to support my said argument, Socrates has provided to his one of
many literatures that concerns his cyclical view about regime changes; He believed on
his conceptual framework of constitutional regime, that in the construction of a Just
society a Just constitution decays over time. Accordingly, to him, Democracy has the
innate tendency to produce or to transition to Tyranny, and that is caused mainly by
‘psyche’ decays or moral depravation as generations passes. In conclusion, Oligarchy
and Particracy are both forms of system in the government that suggests the
possibility of moral depravation in a society, based on its principle of being run by
people whom most likely will take advantage to its citizenry, that is also why I firmly
believe, to such argument that most representative systems like Democracy, could
deteriorate towards an Oligarchy or Particracy systems of government.

2. What are your thoughts on the opinion piece entitled “Time to Move On from
Martial Law? https://www.rappler.com/voices/imho/opinion-time-move-on-martial-
law?

Truth be told, Rappler has done a great job in advocating what is the truth, and
fleshing out all fraud in order to show people who are blinded with it, about what kind
of information they are trying to digest. Without these ‘modern' heroes, I personally
could not imagine what kind of chaos would that be, let alone the chaos that is, even
with the existence of every concerned nationalist. Because, people with power, are
freely exhausting their privilege to authority in order to manipulate information and
disseminate it to the masses to produce a disordered crowd that will favor them. But,
enough is enough, we have lived long enough in this world, in this society, and have
experienced what we are not ought to experience in order to understand how roughly
our government is being runned by immoral and tyrants.

Indeed, moving on is not an option and never will be, especially in the case of
Marcoses. Not until justice is served. Granted, his son Bong bong is not a dictator
himself, unlike his father but, as a matter of fact and DNA, he is part of the clique that
made many Filipinos during his regime suffer, tortured, and put the whole country in
grave deterioration. This should never happen again, not again. All of us have to
relearn that the present-day Constitution, our 1987 Philippine Constitution was
established as a reactionary measure to avoid such things from happening again.
Because of what happened during Marcos’s regime, the Constitution is deemed with
all its might to avoid and nullify any sign or key-potential that could risk the nation to
undergo such suffering, and that is enough reason for us to not be silent, and fight for
our rights.

Finally, one of the greatest weaknesses of our country is the poor educational
system, and it shows in the prevalence of fraudulent information, dissemination of
lies, electing oligarchs, and the likes. Basically, democracy does not require everyone
to be geniuses, what it requires is sufficient knowledge, morality and compassion.
Whilst many still do not believe in the importance of speaking up for what is right, the
country is being pinned to the ground by those who use their power of authority to
benefit themselves while brainwashing the masses that they are being supported.
Education, proper education is what the country needs in order to address its most
significant weakness, misinformation and mobocracy, and by speaking up to such
advocacy is what would make things to happen, because then, freedom of speech shall
always go in both ways, if you were not going to be able to say it, then you have got
to hear it.

3. Is social media a threat to democracy? Why?

Disinformation on Social Media Is Threat to Democracy, Rappler CEO Says
(voanews.com)

First of many things, the Crusading Filipina journalist, Maria Ressa, as an

article has addressed her--has brought home multiple of exceptional contributions in
the field of journalism for winning plenty of international awards, and recently the
“Nobel Peace Prize” itself. She has done a lot works that unfortunately, many
Filipinos were illiterate enough, blinded by the lies that is prevalent in social media
platforms, same people whom are waiting each day to get a glimpse of every news
therein, and same people whom are always mad when they hear ‘truths’ that are
opposed to their ‘idols’ saying “bayarin,” “bias”; Still, she never stopped doing what
she believed was right as she said, "I helped write the standards and ethics manual of
three news organizations. It would be disappointing if I didn't live up to these
standards. You can't buckle when there is so much at stake.”

Ideally, social media was made in order to satiate the people’s need in terms of
faster and widespread dissemination of information, to include the possibility of a
much faster communication to people globally by means of the internet. All for the
benefit of its user, on the other hand, such freedom to widespread access to
information and data, it requires greater responsibility, as the old saying goes “too
much of anything, could be bad”. Therefore, when people get too ‘free’ they tend to
abuse it, even though some people will not see it as a sensible thing, there are still
people who innately want to take advantage of people around them, and with social
media, it is much more doable.

In correlation to democracy, as the power and every authority emanates from

its people, thus, it is an undoubted fact that those people who are in power has the
capacity to use their resource and capitalize the dissemination of information through
every social platform and spread a brainwashing information that is the manipulation
of truth in order for it to favor just them. And that kind of system is what makes social
media a threat to democracy, because of people having to be “too free” in doing
things, saying things, in social media that is hardly regulated.
 It is now in my conclusion that it is always in the hands of people or the users,
to how he/she wants to make use of the salient features of social media. Just like
many things, it has to be ‘balanced’ or else anyone could end up being too passive or
abusive of something. Therefore, I believe that social media is in fact a “privilege”
like it was established in this essay, it can be achieved by anyone, anytime, but it
requires sufficient knowledge, proper understanding in order to avoid ending up
malpracticing its purpose, social media is for people to efficiently and effectively
share and obtain information, not for widespread of fraudulent information for
political shenanigans and especially not to deteriorate individual’s lives. We can
always make use of social media for the greater good, only that, one shall stay
vigilant, moral, and responsible in exercising such freedom and privilege of using it,
in order to avoid drastic mistakes to happen that could harm and damage anyone
else’s lives.