Family and Politics: Dynastic Persistence in the Philippines

The impact of individual wealth on posterior political power

“…The coefficient of previous political power is interesting in itself: holding a previous political position increases the probability of having posterior political success by about 28 percentage points. This is in line with previous findings on the self-perpetuation of political power (see Dal Bó et al, 2009;Querubín, 2011;Rossi, 2011).…”

“…There is also a related literature on political dynasties that documents evidence on self-perpetuation of political power in democracies (Dal Bó et al, 2009;Querubín, 2011;Rossi, 2011). This literature explains the observed persistence of political elites but it cannot explain why certain individuals got into power in the first place.…”

Politician Family Networks and Electoral Outcomes: Evidence from the Philippines

“…In addition, because these networks are relatively slow to change, this could explain why political power tends to be concentrated among a few families in a number of consolidating democracies (Querubín 2016).…”

“…Political competition in Philippine municipalities revolves around political dynasties and is characterized by strong clientelistic practices (Hutchcroft and Rocamora 2003;Querubín 2016;Mendoza et al 2016). As a result, electoral strategies tend to focus on contingent political exchange which refers to the exchange of a wide range of clientelistic goods and services including jobs/patronage (Lande 1964), money/ vote buying (Cruz 2013;Khemani 2015), and other private goods and services.…”

The logic of hereditary rule: theory and evidence

“…Using a regression discontinuity design, they argue that dynastic political power is self-perpetuating with a positive exogenous shock to a person's political power having persistent e¤ects on holding political power. Querubin (2010) looks at political dynasties in the Philippines using a similar approach and …nds an even stronger e¤ect of a political advantage through a family connection on holding power. Querubin (2011) …nds that there is no e¤ect of introducing a term limit on the persistence of family power.…”