The Matrix of Policy in the Philippines

Survey of findings on the social, political, and economic state of the Philippine nation. Analysis indicates that among the less-developed countries, the Philippines is not a nation in a general massive social crisis. Classical metaphors about the polity and economy of less-developed countries are misleading when applied to the Philippine experience. The country has a stable democracy, has a modernizing economy growing at a real rate of 6 percent, and does not appear particularly susceptible to revolution from either the right or the left. None of this means, however, that the country is performing spectacularly or that it has no problems. The nation does have specific ills (poverty, Huk dissidence, unemployment, violence, periodic balance-of-payments problems) but none appear unmanageable. However, appropriate, specific policy responses will depend on a much closer articulation of information systems with decisionmaking.