Decentralization and the Fragmentation of the Post-Marcos Party System

Among the developments that have attracted the attention of a large number of scholars and policymakers interested in the Philippines are two dramatic trends that emerged after the fall of Marcos: decentralization and the fragmentation of the party system. In 1991 the Philippines embarked on a grand experiment, pledging to divert an unprecedented amount of resources and authority to local governments. This decentralization was rolled out, in fits and starts, and with successes and failures, over the course of the next two decades. Over the same two decades the Philippines party system shed its pre-martial law norm of a stable two-party system, and replaced it with a highly unstable and increasingly fragmented party system. This paper investigates whether these two developments are somehow linked. I argue that there are theoretical reasons to believe the two should be related – decentralization reduces the prize available to large national parties, which should correspond to greater fragmentation. After examining the electoral and decentralization data I find that the fragmentation of the post-Marcos party system is consistent with the incentives generated by decentralization as well as a shift to a single term limit for the president. However, the timing of decentralization better accounts for the spike in fragmentation we observe beginning in 2001