The Transformation of Politics and the Politics of Transformation

Abstract

"The development of the modes of forest governance in Thailand and the Philippines followed a historical trajectory that saw the transformation of the way power is constituted and institutionalized in society. The process is by no means complete, in as much as the dynamic interplay between the State and civil society continues to be played in the arena of the political. The changes in forest policy, as manifestations of such interplay, reflected the interesting convergences as well as divergences of these two modes of institutionalization. As it appeared, the statist and civil society modes articulate as oppositional discourses in Thailand, while they have entered into some kind of guarded collaboration in the case of the Philippines. At this point, whether civil societies are in the process of colonizing the State or the State is in the process of co-opting civil societies is a question that calls to attention the necessity for a structural analysis of the articulation. This question is very valid in the case of the Philippines. In Thailand, it is more relevant to speculate on the outcome of a possible legislation of community forestry into law, and how this would affect the oppositional nexus between State and civil society. Would the passage of a law signal a victory for civil society for having successfully 'civilized' the State, or would it signal the beginning of the discourse and its bearers being co-opted by the State? This paper ventures into political futuristics, specifically by looking at the transformations that have been occurring from the political 'past' to the political 'present' to be able to speculate about the 'future' of politics as well as the politics of the 'future'."