The political practices of the Philippines have never followed truly democratic or meritocratic principles, but rather oligarchic and patrimonial ones. Max Weber defines the patrimonial state as one where “practically everything depends explicitly upon personal considerations: connections, favors, privileges.” To be more specific, it is the practice of devoting functions of the state to serve private interests. These practices took such forms in the Philippines with programs of “selective expropriation, creation of export monopolies, promotion of favored associates or “cronies,” cheap credit, tax incentives, state licenses, or monopoly privileges” . The decisions of governance were determined by patrimonial connections over merit.
An oligarchy is a condition in which political and economic power is concentrated in a small elite group. The Philippines became an oligarchy from a historical experience of colonialism. Instituting a national state government was inadequate to detract from the power of landowning families who had governed during colonial rule. Under Spanish colonial rule, the Philippines was characterized by a type of feudalism where aristocrats of Spanish lineage (mestizos) controlled large sections of land (haciendas) with indigenous people as laborers. Under American rule, the Philippines first established democratic representational institutions. However, there was no alteration of existing power structures. Like in many other instances of colonialism, the already powerful people were chosen to function as go-betweens for the colonizer and the colonized area. Despite these early democratic institutions, a feudalist structure remained in which mestizo legislators (backed by the Americans) controlled the employment and economic prospects of civilians. Thus, the benefits of growth and the state were seen by only few while much of the population remains in poverty ).