In the name of civil society: from election movements to people power in the Philippines /
Eva-Lotta E. Hedman
- Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, c2006
- xiv, 268 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. In the name of civil society -- 2. Transformism, crises of authority, and the dominant bloc in the Philippines -- 3. Veterans of war and civic action : NAMFREL in the 1950s -- 4. Bishops, businessmen, and moral leadership : CNEA and OQC in the 1960s -- 5.Volunteers of the nation and the empire of civil society : NAMFREL in the 1980s -- 6. Mapping the movement : NAMFREL 1986 in six provincial cities and towns -- 7. Watching the watchers : the spectacle of civil society -- 8. From free elections movements to people power : civil society revisited.
Based on extensive research spanning the course of a decade (1991-2001), this study offers a powerful analysis of Philippine politics and society inspired by the writings of Antonio Gramsci. It draws on a rich collection of sources from archives, interviews, newspapers, and participant-observation. It identifies a cycle of recurring "crises of authority," involving mounting threats - from above and below - to oligarchical democracy in the Philippines. Tracing the trajectory or a Gramscian "dominant bloc" of social forces, Hedman shows how each such crisis in the Philippines promotes a countermobilization by the "intellectuals" of the dominant bloc: the capitalist class, the Catholic Church, and the U.S. government.