Publication

This paper examines the July 2005 political crisis in the Philippines surrounding the impeachment complaint filed against President Arroyo. The author states that, somewhat paradoxically, the first democracy in Asia has come to suffer from a democratic deficit. She maintains that many of the country's problems stem from the inherent imbalance between weak political parties on the one hand, and dominant institutions such as the military and the Catholic church on the other. The article concludes that, both in terms of the ongoing fight against poverty as well as the overdue reforms of the country's political system, the democratic revolution in the Philippines remains an "unfinished" one.