peer-reviewed publications

2023

1. CJRES

   Platforming populism: the services transition, precarious urbanization, and digital platforms in the rise of illiberal populism in the Philippines

   Jerik Cruz and Emille de la Cruz

   Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2023

   Abs Bib Website

   Existing research on the adverse impact of digital platforms on democratic politics has generally focussed on supply side factors underlying illiberal populism. Yet by reinforcing a services-led growth model of capitalism in the developing world, the platform economy has also been implicated on the demand-side of the global populist upsurge by fostering new insecure classes as well as precarious urbanisation patterns. Through a case study of the rise of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines’ 2016 elections, we show how our theoretical argument has unfolded in one of the most well-known cases of illiberal populism within the Global South. Even while waging unprecedented disinformation campaigns on social media, the political opportunity structure underlying Duterte’s electoral victory in 2016 was fostered by the growth of ‘rising yet insecure’ classes linked to the Philippines’ services and platform economy, as well as the socio-spatial legacies of the country’s experience of premature deindustrialisation.

   @article{cruz2023platforming,
     title = {Platforming populism: the services transition, precarious urbanization, and digital platforms in the rise of illiberal populism in the Philippines},
     author = {Cruz, Jerik and Cruz, Emille de la},
     journal = {Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society},
     volume = {16},
     number = {2},
     pages = {269--288},
     year = {2023},
     publisher = {Oxford University Press UK},
     bibtex_show = true,
   }

2020

1. JAPE

   The political economy of foreign investment and industrial development: the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand in comparative perspective

   Manuel F Montes and Jerik Cruz

   Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 2020

   Abs Bib Website

   This article examines the contribution of foreign investment to industrial development by comparing the Philippine experience with two ASEAN neighbors: Malaysia and Thailand. Instead of viewing a failure to attract foreign investment as a binding development constraint, we focus on the appropriateness of such flows for industrial upgrading. Likewise, we underscore political economy factors—particularly the presence of effective state interventions and conducive state-business ties—as prime features of countries that have leveraged FDI for more successful industrial development. Without discounting flaws in these interventions in the cases of Thailand and Malaysia, we find that such forms of government involvement have been vital in driving both countries’ strong investment and industrial growth records relative to that of the Philippines. Revived industrial policy initiatives in developing Asia would be well-advised to heed these lessons on investment-related intervention, so as to reorient their investment policies for maximum impact on industrial development in the years ahead.

   @article{montes2020political,
     title = {The political economy of foreign investment and industrial development: the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand in comparative perspective},
     author = {Montes, Manuel F and Cruz, Jerik},
     journal = {Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy},
     volume = {25},
     number = {1},
     pages = {16--39},
     year = {2020},
     publisher = {Taylor \& Francis},
     bibtex_show = true,
   }