Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, the son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, recently won the Philippines presidential election by a landslide. While this came as a surprise to many outside observers, it was expected in the Philippines. It is the result of a long process where the Marcos name has been seemingly washed clean from associations with a kleptocratic and murderous dictatorship. How did this happen? And what does the return of Marcos mean for the future of the Philippines?
In this hybrid seminar we invite leading experts to help us answer these questions.
Duncan McCargo: Experiences as an official election observer and the persistence of dynastic politics
Cecilie Endresen: The role of religion in the election campaign
Olle Törnquist: The fate of the centre-left: Why and how and what's next
Bonn Juego: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Populism: from the Presidency of Duterte to the Election of Marcos Jr
This seminar is organised in collaboration with Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS).
A light lunch will be served from 12.00.
Chair
Arild Engelsen Ruud is professor of South Asia studies at the University of Oslo and heads the Leadership and Political Participation in Asian democracies project.
Panel
Duncan McCargo is Director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies and a professor of political science at the University of Copenhagen. He specializes on the comparative politics of Southeast Asia, especially Thailand. Duncan first visited the Philippines in 1987 and was most recently an official observer in Northern Luzon for the 2022 elections, under the auspices of the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL).
Cecilie Endresen is member of the research project Leadership and popular participation in Asian democracies, with focus on Christianity and politics in the Philippines, and associate professor in the comparative study of religion at the University of Oslo (IKOS, HF). Research interests include religion and politics, Christianity and nationalism, Islam and pluralism, political myths, new religious movements, blasphemy, and conspiracy theories.
Olle Törnquist is professor emeritus of Political Science and Development Research at the University of Oslo whose research has focused on rise and decline of the second (anti-colonial) and third (liberal and civic) waves of democracy, along with efforts at rights-based development. His research focus has been on South and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, but also the effects and reactions in the North, particularly Scandinavia.
Bonn Juego is university lecturer in world politics at the University of Helsinki.