Political dynasty is a way for
self-preservation and expansion of a family. Who would not want to have power
in their hands for a long period of time? These families have used partnerships
with lawyers, the media, showbiz personalities and corporations to gain ever
more popularity which will ensure their rule over Philippine politics. Center
for People Empowerment in Governance director for policy studied Professor
Bobby Tuazon said in an article that since the 1900s, candidates that are
dynastic have had a bigger chance of winning than others. It has been a usual
thing for citizens to base their decisions on personality-based campaigns with
the support of a dynasty. According to Tuazon, "such dynasties perpetuate
and enjoy various advantages in traditional kinship networks, political
machineries, wealth, property, access to government sources, weak political
party system, weak electoral system, culture of powerlessness among the people
and warlordism."
The popularity of political dynasty is
directly related to Oligarchy or government by a small fraction of people or
family. When a family has more than one member in the politics, their wealth
can grow two times bigger and they can even manipulate each other in their way
of ruling. Tradition has influenced our government greatly which is also why
political dynasties are more common nowadays. From the Marcoses, Cojuangcos,
Aquinos and Osmeñas, the politicians have seen the power that their family had
or has until now. Some politicians, however, are not all about the power and
the wealth. A possible reason why political dynasties exist is because of their
desire to be influential. A politician alone is not strong enough to change the
people's views but with the help of their family, the country might just stop
and listen to what they want us to hear.
Some political dynasties do not exist for the
benefit of each family member. There are those politicians who run against
their own relative which may be because of some sort of rivalry. With these kinds
of politicians, their competition against each other affects the government
because their reason of running may not be entirely for public service but to
show their own family that they could do so much better. Similarly, one of
their reasons for running is still because of the desire for power and wealth.
This reason is inevitable because it is one of the things that being a
politician offer.