📌 Foreign RRL Citations (with references)

Performative Governance and State Power

Iza Ding (2020). Performative governance refers to how political authorities use language, symbols,
and gestures to construct the appearance of effective governance and build legitimacy, even when
substantive policy outcomes may be lacking. In political science literature, this concept shows how
performativity is an active strategy for projecting power and shaping public expectations — distinct
from actual policy delivery — thus illustrating how power can be built and sustained through political
performance.

Reference (APA style):

Ding, I. (2020). Performative governance. World Politics, 72(4), 525–556. Cambridge University Press.

Curated Power and Performative Political Practices

Ruben Kremers & Lena Rethel (2024). Their work on curated power expands performative politics to
include how power is enacted in public political events and spaces, showing that political power is
continuously performed through rituals, speeches, and interactions that help stabilize and reproduce
social hierarchies. This aligns with theories that see power not as static but as enacted and
constructed through public performance practices.

Reference (APA style):

Kremers, R., & Rethel, L. (2024). Curated power: The performative politics of industry events.
International Political Sociology, 18(1). Oxford Academic.

📌 Local (Philippine) RRL Citations (with references)

Digital Activism and Performative Political Engagement in the Philippines

Joseph Ching Velasco et al. (2024). This study investigates how Filipino youth engage politically
through social media platforms, highlighting how digital interactions can function as performative
expressions of power and participation. The research explains how online political participation
becomes a form of building influence, generating visibility, and shaping political discourse among
Filipino voters — linking performative action to broader processes of political empowerment.

Reference (APA style):

Velasco, J. C., Manguera, J. J. C., Navalan, E. J. V., Limchiko, J. N. C., Bayot, T. A. M. D., & Mercado, M.
G. V. (2024). The digital dynamics of political engagement among Filipino youth: Examining
participation in social media platforms. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 32(3),
1051–1071.

Historical Advocacy Politics in the Philippines (Parliament-of-the-Streets)

Kilusan sa Kapangyarihan at Karapatan ng Bayan (KAAKBAY) / JAJA period (1980s). Though not a
scholarly journal article, movements like KAAKBAY and the Justice for Aquino, Justice for All coalition
exemplify performative politics in a Philippine historical context — where rallies, public assemblies,
and street-level political mobilization built power against an authoritarian regime and contributed to
democratic transformation. Their methods illustrate how performative political actions (collective
rituals, protests, symbols) can build collective political power in practice.

Reference (APA style):

Kilusan sa Kapangyarihan at Karapatan ng Bayan (KAAKBAY) and Justice for Aquino, Justice for All
(Philippines historical advocacy groups). (1983–1986). Philippine political movement archives.

Example Synthesis (how they connect in your intro)

Scholars of political power increasingly recognize that political authority is not only exercised through
institutional mechanisms but also through performance — symbolic, rhetorical, and discursive acts
that construct legitimacy and mobilize collective identities. In international political science literature,
performative governance highlights how states manage public expectations through symbolic
performance rather than substantive policy action (Ding, 2020), while the concept of curated power
shows how power is enacted and stabilized through public events and interactions (Kremers & Rethel,
2024). In the Philippine context, youth political engagement on social media reflects a new form of
digital performative politics, enabling emergent power-building processes among young citizens
(Velasco et al., 2024). Historically, movements such as KAAKBAY and JAJA demonstrate how
performative politics — streets, rallies, and collective rituals — played a critical role in building
political power and contributing to democratic change in the Philippines.

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Review of Related Literature

Power Building through Performative Politics

Political power is increasingly understood not merely as something that leaders possess through
formal authority, but as something that is actively constructed, displayed, and maintained through
public actions. Contemporary political scholarship emphasizes that speeches, rituals, symbolic
gestures, and media appearances play a crucial role in shaping how leaders are perceived and how
legitimacy is produced. This perspective shifts attention from institutions alone to the performative
dimensions of politics, where power is continuously enacted before an audience.

Foreign literature strongly supports this view. Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, although
originally developed in the context of identity, has been widely applied to political analysis. Butler
(1997; 2021) argues that authority does not pre-exist action; rather, it is created and sustained
through repeated acts that are socially recognized as legitimate. In politics, this means that leaders
build power by consistently performing roles associated with leadership—through public speeches,
ceremonial acts, and symbolic displays of authority. These repeated performances gradually
naturalize power, making it appear stable and unquestionable. Butler’s work provides a foundational
framework for understanding power as something done, not merely held.

Building on this idea, Iza Ding (2020) introduces the concept of performative governance, which
explains how political leaders and institutions rely on symbolic actions to project effectiveness and
control, even in the absence of substantive policy outcomes. Ding argues that performances such as
highly publicized inspections, speeches, and staged political events function to reassure citizens and
reinforce state legitimacy. This perspective is particularly relevant to studies of local politics, where
visibility and public interaction often matter as much as concrete achievements. Ding’s work
demonstrates that performative politics is not superficial; rather, it is a strategic mechanism through
which power is built and sustained over time.

These foreign perspectives resonate strongly with studies conducted in the Philippine context. Nicole
Curato (2016) examines how political legitimacy in the Philippines is shaped through public
communication, emotional narratives, and performative leadership styles. Her work highlights how
Filipino political leaders engage citizens by dramatizing issues, using moral language, and presenting
themselves as relatable figures. Curato emphasizes that political authority in democratic societies like
the Philippines often depends on leaders’ ability to perform sincerity, concern, and strength in public
spaces. This reinforces the idea that power is negotiated through interaction and performance rather
than imposed solely through formal structures.

Similarly, Alfred McCoy and Patricio Abinales (2017) analyze Philippine politics by focusing on local
power relations, patronage, and public displays of authority. Their work shows that local officials
frequently rely on symbolic acts—such as public appearances, distribution of aid, and participation in
community rituals—to establish dominance and loyalty. These practices demonstrate how
performative politics operates at the grassroots level, where personal visibility and repeated public
engagement play a critical role in consolidating political power. Their analysis helps bridge abstract
theories of performativity with concrete political practices in local Philippine settings.

Taken together, these foreign and local studies reveal a shared insight: political power is not static but
is continuously built through performance. While foreign scholars provide theoretical foundations
explaining how performativity constructs authority, local Philippine studies illustrate how these
theories manifest in everyday political life. This body of literature highlights the importance of
examining performative politics at the local level, where power is enacted most visibly and directly
experienced by citizens. However, despite these contributions, there remains a gap in empirical
studies that closely examine how performative politics operates in specific local communities—
particularly in municipalities such as Santa Cruz, Marinduque—making this research both timely and
significant.

References (APA Style)

Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. New York: Routledge.

Butler, J. (2021). Performative acts and gender constitution (Updated discussions on performativity
and power). Routledge.

Ding, I. (2020). Performative governance. World Politics, 72(4), 525–556.

Curato, N. (2016). Politics of anxiety, politics of hope: Penal populism and Duterte’s rise to power.
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 35(3), 91–109.

Abinales, P. N., & McCoy, A. W. (2017). State and society in the Philippines (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield.s