Philippine History, Government and

Constitution

Course Description

Important events inthe history of the

PhilippinesInterrelationship of important

factorsthat were responsible for the

formation of the Filipino nation

state and government

basic concepts

principles processes

Philippine Constitution.

Course Policies

Deadline:A deduction from your grade will be given for

passing requirements way past the deadline.

Course Requirements1. Active participation in class

discussion2. Reaction / Reflective

papers3. Quizzes4. Major Examinations

Computation of Grades

Class Standing – 60%

Examination - 40%

100%

(class participation, activities, quizzes & others)

Computation of Grades

Final Grade:

(Monthly + Prelims + Finals)

/ 3

Course Calendar

Concepts in Politics Philippine History The study of Political Science Introduction to the 1987

constitution Article I: National territory Article II- Declaration of

Principles(Section 1-6)

1st Grading Period

2nd Grading Period

Article II: State Policies (Section 7-27)

Article III: Bill of Rights Article IV: Citizenship

Course Calendar

• Legislative Department – Lawmaking Body • Executive Department - Implementing Body • Judicial Department: Interpreter of Laws

3rd Grading Period

Other Constitutional Provisions

Course References

• Textbook on the Philippine Constitution

by Hector S. De Leon• Constitution Made Simple by

Hector S. De Leon• History of the Filipino People

by Teodoro Agoncillo

WHAT IS POLITICS?

• "Man is by nature a political animal."-- Aristotle

• "Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."

-- Ambrose Bierce, American journalist • "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs

which properly concern them."-- Paul Valery, French writer and philosopher

• "The mistake a lot of politicians make is in forgetting they've been appointed and thinking they've been anointed."

-- Claude D. Pepper, US Senator

• "My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."

-- Harry S. Truman, US President (1945-52)• "Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects."

-- Lester B. Pearson, Canadian PM (1963-68)• "Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with

bloodshed."-- Mao Zedong, Chairman of People’s Republic of China

• "Politics is the art of the possible."-- Otto Von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany

The American public’s reactions to the behaviour of their leaders in the debt/budget battle in Washington, July-Aug 2011, Pew Research poll: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2078/debt-ceiling-limits-budget-deficit-tea-party-republicans-obama-democrats-republicans-ridiculous

The word politics comes from ancient Greece.

Its root is the word polis, which began to be used about 2,800 years ago to denote a self-governing city (city-state)

• POLIS – city-state• POLITES – citizen• POLITIKOS – politician• POLITIKE – politics as the art

of citizenship and government• POLITEIA – constitution, rules

of politics• POLITEUMA – political

community, all those residents who have full political rights

• Some common definitions of politics:*– Politics is the exercise of

power– Politics is the public

allocation of values– Politics is the resolution of

conflict– Politics is the competition

among individuals, groups, or states pursuing their interests

*Danziger, James N. Understanding the Political World. NY: Addison-Wesley, 1991

Politics is often understood as: the art and science of GOVERNMENT, as affairs of STATE

But:The state is rooted in society.The state maintains a particular social order.Politics outside the state is important.Interactions between state and society are at the core of politics.

So, to understand politics, it has to be examined as part of the entire fabric of SOCIAL RELATIONS – cooperation and conflicts between individuals, groups, classes

• Politics, in its broadest sense, is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live. (Heywood)– Linked to cooperation and conflict– The heart of the politics is often portrayed as a

process of conflict-resolution, in which rival views or competing interests are reconciled with one another.

• Four categories of the definition: –politics as the art

of government–politics as public

affairs–politics as

compromise–politics as power

…AS AN ART• the exercise of control within society through the making

and enforcement of collective decisions.• 'politics' is derived from polis, literally meaning city-state. • politics can be understood to refer to the affairs of the

polis, in effect, 'what concerns the polis'. (Heywood) - 'what concerns the state'.

• people are said to be 'in politics' when they hold public office, or to be 'entering politics' when they seek to do so.

• David Easton defined politics as the 'authoritative allocation of values'. – encompasses the various processes through which government responds to

pressures from the larger society, in particular by allocating benefits, rewards or penalties.

– 'Authoritative values' are therefore ones that are widely accepted in society and considered binding by the mass of citizens. Thus, politics is associated with 'policy', with formal or authoritative decisions that establish a plan of action for the community.

– offers a highly restricted view of politics.

• the realm of 'the political' is restricted to those state actors who are consciously motivated by ideological beliefs and who seek to advance them through membership of a formal organisation like a political party. – politicians are described as 'political' whereas civil servants are seen as 'non-

political‘ – judges are taken to be 'non-political' figures while they interpret the law

impartially and in accordance with the available evidence

…AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS

• it is only within a political community that human beings can live 'the good life'.

• Politics is, then, an ethical activity concerned with creating a 'just society';

• the 'master science'.

… AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS

• beyond the narrow realm of government to what is thought of as 'public life' or 'public affairs'.

• the distinction between 'the political' and 'the non-political' coincides with the division between an essentially public sphere of life and what can be thought of as a private sphere.

DISTINCTIONPUBLIC – THE STATE

• The institutions of the state: the apparatus of government, the courts, the police, the army, the society security system and so forth are 'public' in the sense that they are responsible for the collective organisation of community life.

• Moreover, they are funded at the public's expense, out of taxation. politics is restricted to the activities of the state itself and the responsibilities which are properly exercised by public bodies.

PRIVATE – CIVIL SOCIETY

• Consists of institutions like the family and kinship groups, private businesses, trade unions, clubs, community groups

• 'private' in the sense that they are set up and funded by individual citizens to satisfy their own interests, rather than those of the larger society.

• Those areas of life in which individuals can and do manage for themselves - economic, social, domestic, personal, cultural, artistic and so on - are therefore clearly 'non-political'.

politics is restricted to the activities of the state itself and the responsibilities which are properly exercised by public bodies.

DISTINCTION

• An alternative 'public/private' divide is sometimes expressed in a further and more subtle distinction, namely between 'the political' and 'the personal'.

• Although civil society can be distinguished from the state, it nevertheless contains a range of institutions that are thought of as 'public' in the wider sense that they are open institutions, operating in public and to which the public has access. It is therefore possible to argue that politics takes place in workplace.

DISTINCTION

• Nevertheless, although this view regards institutions like businesses, community groups, clubs and trade unions as 'public', it remains a restricted view of politics. According to this perspective, politics does not, and should not, infringe upon 'personal' affairs and institutions.

• Feminist thinkers in particular have pointed out that this implies that politics effectively stops at the front door; it does not take place in the family, in domestic life or in personal relationships.

• Politicians, for example, tend to classify their own sexual behaviour or financial affairs as 'personal' matters, thereby denying that they have political significance in the sense that they do not touch on their conduct of public affairs.

AS A

COMPROMISE…

• Politics is seen as a particular means of resolving conflict, namely by compromise, conciliation and negotiation, rather than through a resort to force and naked power.

AS A COMPROMISE

• Politics (is) the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and the survival of the whole community. (Crick)

• The key to politics is therefore a wide dispersal of power. • Accepting that conflict is inevitable.• Critics: Crick's conception of politics is heavily biased

towards the form of politics that takes place in western pluralist democracies

Many thinkers maintain that conflict and integration are not two opposed faces but one and the same overall process in which conflict naturally produces integration, and divisions, by their development, tend naturally toward their own suppression leading to the coming of the city of harmony.”

The Idea of Politics, L.: Methuen, 1966, p.viii

Cooperation and conflict are two basic modes of politics

POLITICS AS COOPERATION, OR INTEGRATION – as the process of rule based on order and justice. Politics is driven by the considerations of the common good.More natural for the thinking of those who support the existing social order (status quo)

POLITICS AS POWER

• Broadest and the most radical. • Sees politics at work in all social activities and in

every corner of human existence. • As Adrian Leftwich put it: 'Politics is at the heart

of all collective social activity, formal and informal, public and private, in all human groups, institutions and societies'.

• In this sense, politics takes place at every level of social interaction; it can be found within families and amongst small groups of friends just as much as within nations and on the global stage.

• At its broadest, politics concerns the production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence.

• Politics, in essence, is power: the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means.

• This notion is summed up in the title of Harold Lasswell's book Politics: Who Gets What, When, How?: Politics is therefore a struggle over scarce resources, and power is the means through which this struggle is conducted.

POLITICS AS CONFLICT -as struggle for power. Politics is driven by selfish interests of individuals, groups, businesses, states.More natural for the thinking of those who would like to change the status quo in their favor.

At any given moment, in any political process or event, one can discover elements of both cooperation and conflict which interact in various ways

Political analysis seeks to make sense of the logics of these interactions

THE LEAST CONTROVERSIAL WORKING DEFINITION OF POLITICS

A HUMAN ACTIVITY focused on:

1/ the FORMULATION and EXECUTION of:DECISIONS, which are BINDING on members of:A SOCIAL WHOLE (family, community, society, the world)

– and:

2/ the RELATIONS which are formed between individuals, groups, states IN THE PROCESS of formulation and execution of those decisions.

• See Larry Johnston’s Politics, Broadview Press, 1998, p. 16

Maurice Duverger:“The state – and in a more general way, organized power in any society – is always and at all times both the instrument by which certain groups dominate others, an instrument used in the interest of the rulers and to the disadvantage of the ruled, - and also a means of ensuring a particular social order, of achieving some integration of the individual and the collectivity for the general good… The two elements always co-exist, though the importance of each varies with the period, the circumstances, and the country concerned…