ABSTRACT
Until the early 1970s, Western observers generally regarded the Philippines as a showpiece of American-style democracy. Its 1935 Constitution, establishing a presidential-congressional system of government based on the American model, was set aside in 1972, however, when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law and ruled the country as a dictatorship. In 1981, he introduced an almost equally authoritarian presidential-parliamentary government, similar to the French system. The Marcos dictatorship was brought to an end in 1986 through a combination of forces, including the presidential campaign mounted by Corazon Aquino, the revolt of the military, and the mass demonstrations of "people power." A slightly altered version of the 1935 Constitution was put into place and optimism was restored. In 1990, however, at the time of this writing, with successive military coup attempts against the government of President Aquino, the future of Philippine democracy is once again in question.
