Contested spaces of illiberal and authoritarian politics: Human rights and democracy in crisis

Salvador Santino F Regilme

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102427

Abstract

The global moral appeal of human rights and democratic governance appears to be in severe crisis. In both the Global North and the South, many countries have witnessed the rise of racist, sexist, and illiberal politicians into the highest positions in the government. As one of Asia's oldest electoral democracies, the Philippines is not an exception in this global pattern of decline in civil liberties and democratic governance. Considering the case of the Philippines, this article addresses the following core question: How and under which conditions do contestations as well as legitimations of the Duterte regime emerge across domestic and transnational spaces? This article examines the transnational and domestic contestations and legitimations of the Duterte regime based on a spatially-oriented analysis of the official results of the 2016 and 2019 elections, while demonstrating the multispatial contestations against and in support of global human rights and liberal democratic norms. While the role of geography and spatialization in the formation of illiberal and authoritarian politics remains underappreciated, this article contributes to the disciplinary fields of political geography, comparative politics, and International Relations. Specifically, the article deploys a spatial approach in understanding the territorially-contingent patterns of contestations and legitimations of liberal democratic politics.

Highlights

The global moral appeal of human rights and democratic governance appears to be in severe crisis
Even before the tenure of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, Rodrigo Duterte was elected as the President of the Republic of the Philippines on June 30, 2016, after the end of Benigno Aquino III’s presidency
Despite the very few high-ranking legislators who are outspoken critics of Duterte’s poor human rights record, the majority of the Senators and Members of the House of Representatives likely chose to cooperate with Duterte’s allies out of fear of political retaliation, including the deprivation of easy ac cess to the national budget that may be used for projects in the legisla tors’ respective electoral districts. This fear of retaliation was demonstrated by the widely-televised November 2019 interview of Duterte-allied House Member Joey Salceda, who claimed that the cur rent government is “authoritarian” and asserted that “it’s like with us congressmen, we vote as the President wishes out of fear of him”

Summary

Introduction

The global moral appeal of human rights and democratic governance appears to be in severe crisis In both the Global North and the South, many countries have witnessed the rise of racist, sexist, and illiberal politicians into the highest positions in the government. These politi cians and their allies continue to challenge constitutionally guaranteed norms of democratic governance, peaceful political dissent, and human rights protection including marginalized minority groups. The 1987 Philippine Constitution explicitly prohibits the use of state-sanctioned death penalty and up holds the sanctity of the due process of the law, -Mayor Duterte has been widely criticized for his alleged involvements in extrajudicial killings of minors, homeless people, and suspected criminals in Davao. I conclude by highlighting broader implications of this study to the emerging debates on authoritarianism, political geography, and International Relations

The puzzle: spatializing illiberal and authoritarian politics

Duterte’s illiberal and authoritarian politics in the transnational sphere

Findings

Conclusion