High-level Political Appointments in the Philippines (eBook)

This book questions the belief that patronage explains poor governance and weak organizations. Its focus is on high-level political appointees in the Philippines, but its implications for development processes and policy are far-reaching. Patronage stimulates the emergence of democracy and welfare, and constitutes formal organizations. So intimately connected is it with the health of democracy and effective organizations that attempts to eradicate patronage only harm social, organizational and democratic life. In developed societies this has meant a growing Puritanism interspersed with bouts of corruption and moral panic; and, as they seek to maintain effective organizations and vibrant democracies, a mounting desire to project their own anxieties and imperfections onto developing countries.

Rupert Hodder was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, and educated in England and Hong Kong. He has lived and worked in many parts of East and South East Asia, including China, Malaysia and the Philippines. He is currently a Reader at the University of Plymouth, UK., having previously held posts at the LSE and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and visiting posts at La Salle Institute of Governance, Manila, and at the College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia. He is the author of numerous works that have appeared in Asian Journal of Social Science, Asian Studies Review, Government and Policy, Southeast Asia Research, The Pacific Review, The Far Eastern Economic Review and the Salisbury Review amongst other journals. He is also the author of Emotional Bureaucracy, Merchant Princes, Between Two Worlds, In China's Image, and The West Pacific Rim.

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This book questions the belief that patronage explains poor governance and weak organizations. Its focus is on high-level political appointees in the Philippines, but its implications for development processes and policy are far-reaching. Patronage stimulates the emergence of democracy and welfare, and constitutes formal organizations. So intimately connected is it with the health of democracy and effective organizations that attempts to eradicate patronage only harm social, organizational and democratic life. In developed societies this has meant a growing Puritanism interspersed with bouts of corruption and moral panic; and, as they seek to maintain effective organizations and vibrant democracies, a mounting desire to project their own anxieties and imperfections onto developing countries.