https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6950-8641
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ABSTRACT
To what extent can apolitical civic engagement cultivate resistance against authoritarian rule? Building upon the “community pantries” phenomenon which sprung up between April and May 2021 across the Philippines, I test whether this jolt of civic engagement – decentralized, donation-driven and volunteer-managed food pantry sites – impacted the May 2022 presidential election. I find that areas with more community pantries relative to population were more likely to vote for Robredo, the candidate that most closely represented the democratic opposition. These findings suggest that civic engagement, even that which is not explicitly political or partisan in nature, can be an effective form of democratic resistance in autocratizing settings. This article seeks to contribute to the literature on civic engagement and democratization, strategies of autocratic backlash, and social movement repertoires.
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Notes
1 Iglesias “Violence and Impunity”; Coppedge et al “V-Dem”
2 The author extends thanks to an anonymous reviewer who provided this formatted data.
3 Tocqueville et al, Democracy in America.
4 Putnam et al, Making Democracy Work.
5 Coleman, “Social Capital”
6 Berger “Political Theory”
7 DellaPorta, “Democracy in Social Movements”; Lorch “Elite capture”
8 Gates, “The Black Church.”
9 Coleman Ibid., v
10 Sabet, “Thickening Civil Society”
11 Ganaway, “Black Communities”
12 Noll, “Growing Resistance”
13 Sabet, “Thickening Civil Society”; Mittag, “Perspectives”; Robinson and Friedman, “Civil Society”
14 Lührmann & Lindberg, “A third wave of autocratization is here”
15 Lührmann & Lindberg, Ibid., xiv; Levitsky and Ziblatt How Democracies Die; Lero “Introduction”; Coppedge “Eroding Regimes”; Bermeo “On Democratic Backsliding”
16 Müller, What is Populism?; Santos et al, The Radical Right; Norris and Inglehart, Cultural Backlash; Evans “The rise”; Boese et al “State of the world 2021”
17 Merkel & Lührmann, “Resilience”
18 Boese et al Ibid., xvi
19 Berman, “Civil Society”
20 Marques, Fé e Crime
21 Solano and Rocha, “Falemos”
22 Teets et al “Volunteering”
23 Yabanci, “Turkey’s tamed”
24 Martin “From political jiu-jitsu”
25 Gerschewski, “The three pillars”; Davenport,“State Repression”; Tavana, “After Repression.”
26 Thompson “Explaining Duterte’s Rise”; Weiss et al, “One War”
27 Lührmann & Lindberg, Ibid., xiv; Lero “Voting for Violence”; Garrido “The ground”; Heydarian, “The Rise”; Curato and Teehankee, “The Duterte Reader”; Bello “The Spider”; Bello “Counterrevolution”; Tenorio et al “President Duterte’s bicephalous leadership”
28 David et al “The Philippines’ Anti-Drug Campaign”; Iglesias, Ibid., ii
29 Reyes, “The Spectacle of Violence in Duterte’s ‘War on Drugs.’” Bello, Ibid xxvii; Thompson, Ibid., xxvi; Kenny and Holmes “A New Penal Populism”; Hutchcroft and Holmes “The Philippines in 2021”
30 Hutchcroft and Holmes., Ibid. xxix; Gera and Hutchcroft “Duterte’s Tight Grip”
31 Arugay, “Fall from Grace”
32 As the longtime mayor of the city of Davao, Duterte was known for having “death squads” that killed an estimated thousand people, mostly thought to be petty criminals. In addition to his violent campaign rhetoric, presidential candidate Duterte also said that he would close Congress if it attempted to block his desired actions. Alston, “Report of the Special Rapporteur.” See also Thompson., Ibid xxvi, Kenny “Populism in Southeast Asia”
33 Calimbahin “The City of Manila”; Yusingco and Pizarro “The Militarized Response”; Hutchcroft and Gera “Strong Arming”; Arguelles “The Populist Brand”; Hapal “The Philippines Covid-19 Response”; Lasco “Medical Populism”; Gera “The Emergence”; Hall “Lockdown and Lockdown”; Teehankee “Duterte’s Pandemic Populism”; Magno and Teehankee “Pandemic Politics”
34 On candidacy selection, see Hutchcroft and Holmes, Ibid., xxix; Iglesias 2022, Ibid., ii
35 Dulay, et al, “Who’s Voting”
36 Rodrigo Duterte was under ICC investigation at the time of the elections for crimes against humanity. Marcos was the only presidential candidate to explicitly state that he would not cooperate with the ICC. Iglesias, Ibid., ii; Hutchcroft and Holmes, Ibid., xxix; Quimpo “Duterte’s ‘War on Drugs’”.
37 Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. is the son and namesake of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., the dictator who ruled the Philippines from 1965–1986
38 Gavilan “Hundreds killed”
39 “Community Pantry PH”
40 Cortez, “The politicization”
41 Bolledo, “Parlade”
42 Mangosing, “Parlade”
43 Feliciano, “Badoy Sued ”
44 “Community Pantry PH” Post
45 David, “Generosity”; Abad, “Community Pantries.”
46 “Community Pantry PH”
47 In the Philippine electoral system, the president and vice-president are elected separately.
48 Formatted data on election results and barangay populations was kindly provided by an anonymous reviewer.
49 Lero, “Elections Forensics”
50 Evans “The Continued Significance”; Meléndez and Kaltwasser “Negative partisanship”; Ravanilla et al “Voting”
51 Jalea “Marcos, Robredo”
52 Descalsota “Philippine Election”
53 In results not published here, I also tested the relationship of the mere presence of at least once community pantry and the number of community pantries in a barangay not adjusted for population. The only significant relationship was a negative correlation between the number of community pantries and the difference between Marcos and Robredo vote shares.
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Cecilia Lero
Cecilia Lero holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centro de Estudos da Metrópole at the University of São Paulo. She currently works in the non-profit sector.