228 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy, Second Edition work in this area way back in 1976.) This paper will explore these questions, guided by the few existent studies and using some exploratory data from a series of small studies on adolescent political beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. The Filipino View of Democracy A good starting point on the Filipino view of democracy is the perspective of a Filipino political scientist. In his book chapter, Miranda (2011) comes to the conclusion that Philippine democracy is an illusion and yet ends by saying "democracy, even as it may take some time nurturing, is a foregone conclusion for this country." In his view, democracy is aspirational, an ideal that all peoples strive for, rather than an existent reality. Even the very notion of democracy is in continuing evolution from the early Greek concept; and democratic states today vary greatly in their democratic-ness, some already incorporating a critical element of human welfare and others settling for the minimal/procedural elements like free, fair and credible elections. For Miranda, however, “democracy is grossly misrepresented in the Philippines” (personal communication, 2016). Yet, despite this seeming lack of clarity or full appreciation of the nature of democracy as a concept, it is still generally perceived as an ideal goal. Given this ideal goal to be a democracy, it comes as no surprise that survey data among a random sample of Filipinos reect this bias and preference for democratic systems of government. The Social Weather Station (SWS) has been regularly conducting surveys in the Philippines on the preference for and satisfaction with democracy. Mangahas (2013) noted that, since 2002, Filipinos have shown a generally strong preference for democracy over authoritarianism. The 2002 East Asia Barometer survey data on perceived suitability of democracy showed that, across various demographic groupings, "Filipinos indicated that democracy was suitable for the Philippines" (Guerrero & Abueva, 2003). The SWS March 2013 survey showed that 59 percent favored democracy and 74 percent expressed satisfaction with how democracy works. SWS noted that while satisfaction with democracy may uctuate, democracy is still preferred by most over authoritarianism. Mangahas compared these two systems to modes of transportation, democracy likened to a car and authoritarianism to a calesa, and noted that Filipinos would still "prefer a car to a calesa even when the car is not working well." Mangahas' conclusion nds some convergence with the ndings of a 2006 Pulse Asia survey. The Pulse Asia data showed that very few believe in the existence of democratic governance in the Philippines, citing oligarchic politics as the main condition. Only a small proportion (17 %) believed that the country is not controlled by a powerful few; 41 percent said the country was controlled by oligarchs and another 41 percent could not make up their minds about the issue. Nevertheless, half of the population continued to reject martial law as a strategy to solve the many problems of the nation. Pulse Asia has noted, however, an apparent weakening of this support for democracy over the years.