Migrant Remittances and Democratization in the Republic of the Philippines

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: South Asia, grade: A+, , language: English, abstract: This paper analyzes the remittances and democratization nexus, using the Republic of the Philippines as a case study. The onset of this paper is a riddle. A number of scholars stress the positive impact of remittances on a society and its democratization. The Philippines has successfully sought to gain more remittances through a state driven labor export scheme and has been for many years among the top receiving countries in the world. Despite those conditions deemed propitious to democratization, the Philippines show many democracy deficits. Several scholars have claimed that remittances impact positively on democratization. However, a range of democratization indicators for the Philippines, belie this assertion.This paper delves into various aspects of the democratization, migration and remittance dynamics. Firstly, it examines the scholarly work on remittances (always understood in a wider sense, as comprising social and financial remittances) and the democratization history in the Philippines. Secondly, it argues the methodology used for this paper. Thirdly, it evaluates and describes a selected number of particularities of the Philippine democratic system and its labor export scheme. It interprets the impact of remittances on democratization in the Philippines before drawing conclusions.TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction5Research Question and Thesis Statement7Objectives of the Study7Limitation of the Study7Definition of Key Terms8Chapter 1: Literature Review10Chapter 2: Research Methodology16Freedom in the World Index18Corruption Perception Index19Civic Society study20Press-Freedom Index22People under Threat Index23Chapter 3: Findings and Analysis25Assessment of the Philippine Democracy25Political system26Economic situation31GINI Index35The labor export scheme36Financial remittances40Civil Society42Press freedom45Peace and security46Social remittances48Summary of democratic assessment51Democratization impact of remittances in the Philippines53Conclusion and recommendations for further research55Bibliography59