46 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy CHAPTER TWO In Search of Credible Elections and Parties: The Philippine Paradox * Temario C. Rivera In the highly contested and conflictual process of Philippine democratization, at least two key features stand out: deeply flawed elections dominated by powerful political clans and weakly institutionalized, unstable political parties. Close to three decades after the end of dictatorial rule, these structural features, together with other related problems discussed in this book, stress the difficulty and uncertainty of the democratization process. From a comparative perspective, we know that the process of democratization can be stalled, challenged, and even reversed. To understand and explain this problem in the Philippine context, this paper examines two major aspects of the democratization process—elections and political parties particularly since 1986. Since elections are commonly accepted as a necessary element of the political process in modern democratic systems, the first part of this study examines whether our electoral practices since 1987 meet what may be considered as the minimum procedural conditions for credible, legitimate elections. Secondly, using official results for Congressional and gubernatorial positions from 1986 to the 2010 elections, this paper identifies the key political families and clans in positions of power and *The author appreciates the valuable comments of Felipe B. Miranda and participants in the seminar workshop on the democratization project held on 1 March 2011 at the Philippine Social Science Center, Quezon City. The author also gratefully acknowledges the research assistance provided by Ms. Sahara P. Brahim and Ms. Farrah Grace V. Naparan.