• Iberoamérica
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.123-152
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• 2011

The long standing people's culture of Latin America based on social solidarity of the communities makes the political relations between the leader and the people very different from them of the european societies based on the representative democracy. At any rate, the main stream of the Populist Discourses sees the real populist political processes with the pejorative senses attributing the demagogue style of the leaders. In these sense, it is very important to re-consider the populism discourses of Ernesto Laclau who thinks that the populism is a way of interpreting the emergence of the people to establish the social demands in the context of populist real politics. According to Laclau, "the populism seeks for the radical reconfiguration of the revolt of the 'Status Quo' and new order". This work will confirm if this interpretation of Laclau can be applied to Peronist political regime. Meanwhile the first group of the orthodox line of the discourses on populism including Gino Germani shows that the populism is a political movement based on the manipulation and demagogue by the charismatic leader of the irrational mass during the period in transition after the crises of the traditional oligarchy in Latin America. And another line of the main stream of discourses on populism including Cardoso and O'Donnell says that the populism is a political phenomena in a period of transition towards the modernization and the national development by means of the industrialization through the substitution of the imports and the alliance between the classes after the 1930's. But these principal interpretations on populism disregards that in Argentina many urban poor working class people had lived under the racist, unequal painful social relations due to the underestimation and the discrimination by the upper and the middle class with many intellectuals. But Peronism had considered them as the new social subjects with human dignities. And so we have to rethink the clientelism also with another meanings. In this sense, the theories of Ernesto Laclau on populism is very helpful to illuminate the sensitive and ambiguous meanings of Peronism. Especially Peronism makes the urban working class maintain their life styles more tended to them of the traditional communities and go towards the anti-Status Quo. That is a key of success of Peronism not only that time but until these days. And so this study will show that it is the most important thing that Peronist regime had made the emergence of the 'people' in the meaning of advancing the democracy in Argentina.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-56
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• 2009

It is generally acknowledged that Philippines politics has achieved a basic soil for democracy at the macro-level by the two incidents of 'People Power' (1986 & 2001). However, in spite of such an achievement, Philippine politics at the micro-level, does not enjoy the same reputation. Institutionalized 'Bossism' or 'patron/clientelism' political culture has been attributed to make such a gap. This paper aims to bridge the gap by a longitudinal observation on local politics of a particular province in the Philippines. Surigao del Norte is the province picked up for the study. The reason why this particular province attracts special concerns is that there appears to come a very dynamic local politics, led by an indigenous Christian organization, the PBMA (Philippines Benevolent Missionary Association), which was founded in the mid 1960s. With the coming of the organization in the province, the political power of the traditional families has been narrowed. On the other hand, new families, not only the leader family of the PBMA but also the family allied with the PBMA, has expanded political influence. Following steps are adopted to understand the meaning of such a change. First, institutional frame of Philippine politics and elections will be reviewed. Second, demographic changes will be investigated on Surigao del Norte province to find out how popular the PBMA organization is among the people. Third, local election outcomes will be examined to describe the changing nature of political landscape of the province. This will reveal how the relationship between the old and new families has been developed in the province. Lastly, based on the facts discovered by a longitudinal observation, an attempt to evaluate theories on Philippines politics will be made Conclusions are as follows. To understand the dynamics of Philippine politics, 'expectations from the below,' or, 'passions of the people,' suggested by Ileto, needs more attention. Furthermore, 'mutual accommodation' between domination and resistance, coined by Abinales, also demands more appreciation. The case of local politics in the Surigao del Norte, with the coming of the PBMA, is sure to show a concrete example of changing politics in the 'changeless land.'