Rethinking Democratization in the Philippines: Elections, Political Families, and Parties 61 explaining the developmental process. In short, political and economic development is a multi-causal phenomenon which is difcult to reduce to a single dramatic factor such as political familism. To further explain concrete developmental outcomes, I examine some recent research ndings on the impact of some political variables on socioeconomic outcomes in provinces as seen in poverty levels and human development indicators (HDI-income, education, and health)) in the post26 Marcos era between 1998-2013: In this study by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Panao, Rivera, and Panelo 2015), various factors directly related to political families as well as non-political variables are correlated with poverty and HDI outcomes at the provincial level. The data on elections are drawn mainly from the Comelec, certicates of candidacies, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, published studies on political families and elections, and various newspaper reports. The economic data are based on ofcial reports by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA), and various issues of the Philippine Human Development Report. Appendix 2 provides the summary of statistical tests done for 81 provinces covering the years, 1998-2013. First, two geographic factors stand out in the study with their statistically signicant effect on HDI and poverty incidence: the impact of island provinces and the proximity of a province to Metro Manila. The study shows that HDI tends to be lower in island provinces while those closer to Metro Manila, the primate city, tend to have better human development indicators and lower incidence of poverty. With the exception of Batanes and Cebu which have high HDI, all the other 15 island provinces in the country show higher levels of poverty incidence and lower HDI. Moreover, with the exception of Cebu which by itself has been a historical center of trade and commerce, all the other island provinces are distant from Metro Manila and historically have had no easy means of transportation and economic linkages to the premier city. These geographic and historical factors suggest that political leaders in island provinces, regardless of their family backgrounds, generally face more difcult although not insurmountable constraints in improving the socio-economic conditions of their localities. Among the political variables related to political families tested in the study, only one showed a statistically signicant impact on both the HDI and poverty incidence in the province: a situation where the incumbent governor has also relatives who are incumbent ofcials occupying other local positions at the provincial, city or municipal level. This robust result suggests that a wider network of incumbents belonging to the same family as that of the incumbent governor is in a better position to improve socio-economic conditions, in particular the HDI and to lower poverty incidence in the province. From a rational management perspective, this seems to make sense since the governor with such a network is better able to mobilize and coordinate resources and