Migrant Remittances and Democratization in the Republic of the Philippines

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: South Asia, grade: A+, , language: English, abstract: This paper analyzes the remittances and democratization nexus, using the Republic of the Philippines as a case study. The onset of this paper is a riddle. A number of scholars stress the positive impact of remittances on a society and its democratization. The Philippines has successfully sought to gain more remittances through a state driven labor export scheme and has been for many years among the top receiving countries in the world. Despite those conditions deemed propitious to democratization, the Philippines show many democracy deficits. Several scholars have claimed that remittances impact positively on democratization. However, a range of democratization indicators for the Philippines, belie this assertion.

This paper delves into various aspects of the democratization, migration and remittance dynamics. Firstly, it examines the scholarly work on remittances (always understood in a wider sense, as comprising social and financial remittances) and the democratization history in the Philippines. Secondly, it argues the methodology used for this paper. Thirdly, it evaluates and describes a selected number of particularities of the Philippine democratic system and its labor export scheme. It interprets the impact of remittances on democratization in the Philippines before drawing conclusions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction5
Research Question and Thesis Statement7
Objectives of the Study7
Limitation of the Study7
Definition of Key Terms8
Chapter 1: Literature Review10
Chapter 2: Research Methodology16
Freedom in the World Index18
Corruption Perception Index19
Civic Society study20
Press-Freedom Index22
People under Threat Index23
Chapter 3: Findings and Analysis25
Assessment of the Philippine Democracy25
Political system26
Economic situation31
GINI Index35
The labor export scheme36
Financial remittanc