Nation-State Formation

in the Philippines
What is nation?
The Nation
• A nation refers to “a large group whose members
believe they belong together on the basis of a shared
identity as a people.”

• A nation is an “imagined community”.

-Anderson
The nation is a product of two forces:

1. The group’s need to have

cohesion in order to survive as a
distinct entity, thus conformity is
encourage and deviance is
discourage; and
2. The individual members desire
to belong in order to have security
and meaning.
Classification of Nation
1. Ethnic nation – based on
ethnicity.
2. Territorial nation – emerged from
a predefined territory.
Ethnic nation – is composed of
more or less a single ethnic group.
Territorial nation - is composed of
various ethnic group that have
come to be assimilated into a
nation.
• When various ethnic groups
comprises a nation, ethnic
diversity exists, a condition where
members of interacting ethnic
groups live together symbiotically,
if not harmoniously.
• Ethnic diversity does not
necessarily lead to conflict.
What is State?
The State
• A state – is an organization, composed of
numerous agencies led and coordinated by the
state’s leadership (executive authority) that
has the ability or authority to make and
implement the binding rules for all the people
as well as the parameters of rule making for
other social or organizations in a given
territory, using force if necessary.
• A State - The area geographically within
defined territorial boundaries with a set of
political institutions and rules by a
government through conformance laws. –
Black’s Law Dictionary
• A state, though often thought of as
synonymous with government, is
actually broader because it
“involves machinery, agencies,
jurisdictions, power and rights” and
that it is a network of systematic
relationships.
• A state emerge if governmental roles become
specialized, enforceable authority becomes
centralized, structures becomes permanent, and
relations between the occupants of
governmental roles and those whom they govern
become based on real or fictitious kinship.
• Thus, the institutionalization of central state
apparatus’ control over the sub-central power
holders” is a key factor in the formation of
states.
Characteristic of Effective State

1. Autonomy – refers to the ability

of the political leaders to formulate
and pursue goals that are not
simply reflective of the demand or
particularistic interests of social
groups or classes in society. States,
in order to be effective, need to be
insulated from societal pressures.
 Characteristics of Effective
State
2. Capacity – refers to the means at the
disposal of the state to implement
official goals, especially over the
“actual or potential opposition of
powerful social groups or in the face of
recalcitrant socio-economic
circumstances. This requires the
presence of an extensive and internally
coherent bureaucratic apparatus.
Nation Building and
State Formation
• Nationhood ought to be the basis of
forming states. The people’s sense of
nationalism is supposed to help
contribute to state formation. As
governing institutions, states ought to
evolve from a group of people who have
consolidated their sense of being a
nation.
• However, for most countries in Asia, including
the Philippines, states preceded the
consolidation of national identities as
Western colonizers established governments
to facilitate the governance of newfound
territories. As the decolonization process
took place, these territories became the
boundaries of newly independent nation-
states that were composed of several
ethnolinguistic groups.
• People living across the Philippine archipelago
tend to identity and align themselves on the
basis of their region of origin or birth, seeing
the region as the extension of their own
families.
• Geographic setting – vast difference in the
culture of groups living within the archipelago,
and has rendered Filipinos closer to people
more or less similar to themselves (same
region) and distance themselves from other
region.
• Another factor that makes it difficult for people
living in the territory of Philippine archipelago,
particularly those considered as belonging to ethnic
minority groups, to imagine themselves as part of
the Filipino nation is the way the dominant majority
came to view the other groups condescending, even
to the point of simply identifying them by their
ethnic culture rather than as Filipinos.
• In fact, “the indios” became Filipinos only during the
last years of the Spanish regime in the late 1890s,
with the term being reserve to refer to Spaniards
born in the Philippines or the insulares as they were
known.
• Postcolonial – the Christianized majority already set
themselves apart from making fun of their traditions
simply because these were not as modernized and
westernized. Even a well-known diplomat called the
“Igorots,” a group in the mountain areas of the
Cordillera, as “non-Filipinos” while those from the
lowlands used the term disparagingly to refer to the
“seeming” inferiority of the highlanders.
• It appears that Filipinos are only bounded territorially
rather than by culture or ideology, with the Philippines
being classified as a territorial nation and not an
ethnic nation.
• The presence of ethnolinguistic groups within
a territory should not necessarily lead to
conflict. The situation becomes polarized only
when a group/s dominate(s) the rest by using
the state or its instrumentalities for
particularistic interest. In polarized societies,
the dominated groups tend to highlight their
distinct ethnic identities instead of affiliating
themselves with the national identity.
• The notion of a state defined in the modern sense as a
central body with a monopoly of coercive authority
only emerged during the Spanish colonial period when
the western islands of the archipelago was referred
to as Las Filipinas in 1543.
• In 1576, Spain laid claim to all the islands of the
archipelago and called it Filipinas. This is regarded as
having made Spanish conquest of the islands formally
complete, except for some regions, particularly the
Muslim areas that were subjected to Spanish rule only
nominally.
• Before the establishment of the Spanish colonial
state, the unit of government across the Philippine
archipelago was the barangay, with the barangay
chief exercising legislative, executive, judicial and
military powers and customs and tradition limiting
these powers. But there was no central government
that regulated these numerous barangays. It took
almost centuries for Spain to establish public
administration over the islands, which signified the
attempt of the Spaniards to completely hispanize
the Filipinos by establishing a highly heirarchical
yet centralized government.
 Various levels of government during the
Spanish period
• Municipalities led by governadorcillos
• Cities led by cabildos
Provinces
• Governor
• Audiencia (treasury officials exercising control)
 Settled provinces led by alcades mayores
 Frontier provinces led by corregidores
*Filipinos had very minimal participation usually holding
minor posts such as gobernadorcilllo while Spanish friars
had a major role in running the government, historians
called it frailocracy
 American Colonial Period
• Liberal democracy - also referred to as Western
democracy, is the combination of a liberal political
ideology that operates under an indirect democratic
form of government.
• State power was divided among executive, legislative
and judicial branches, with each branch exercising a
check and balance.
• Check and balances - counterbalancing influences by
which an organization or system is regulated, typically
those ensuring that political power is not concentrated
in the hands of individuals or groups.
 American Colonial Period
• Elections, both at the national and local levels, were
held.
• Local autonomy was encouraged apparently as a
result of an agreement among the American
administrators and Filipino leaders to establish a
strong and independent local government system.
• Filipinization was introduced that gives better
opportunities to Filipinos in terms of political
participation, education and welfare services.
American Colonial Period
• Principle of separation of state and church
was promoted, eventually leading to a lesser
degree of the church’s influence in the affairs
of the state as compared to the Spanish
period.
• 1935 Philippine Constitution – almost exact
replica of US Constitution.
• In the construction of a nation, it is
important to give them a sense of
belongingness in a national community
that provides opportunities to attain
economic well-being, participation in
national policy-making process and an
understanding and appreciation of
varied cultural identities and practices.