A Theoretical Review on Philippine Policy Making : The Weak State-Elitist Framework and the Pluralist Perspective

The article is a theoretical review of the studies made by scholars in policy making in the Philippines. It begins with a discussion on the centrality of the concept of elite in analyzing policy making and its link to particularistic policies. The elite concept is then associated to the weak state conceptualization, where the rise of predatory elite ramifies into state weakness; specifically, the decline in the government’s capacity to produce public regarding policies. Political dynamics are explained in terms a zero-sum relationship, as the decrease in government’s capacity in policy making is generally rationalized in terms of the elite-captured state or the foreign-dominated state. Afterwards, the article elucidates the limitations of the weak state-elitist framework, particularly in the light of the changing nature of the politics in Philippine policy making. It closes with a discourse on the pluralist perspective and its challenge over dominance of the weak state-elitist perspective