ABSTRACT
This study focuses on these party-movement interactions to understand how parties and movements facilitate or frustrate democratization in developing societies. Looking at the Philippine case, it seeks to understand how party-movement interactions shape the trajectory or set the pace of democratization in the past decades: from the return of democracy in 1986 up to its populist inversion that began in 2016. It argues that this party-movement interaction in the Philippines comes from above, to defend, and from below, to deepen, the democratic gains. They are influenced by the following factors: a) dominance of political dynasties; b) clientelistic-patronage relations; c) malleability of the middle class; and d) tensions among the Left movements. It discusses the three types of party-movement interactions: cooptation (taking over of a smaller entity for a new purpose), cooperation (actors working together to achieve a common goal), and contestation (actors openly going against each other).
