The Myth of the Party: The Liberals between Traditional and New Politics

This paper discusses the LP's struggle to define itself as a vanguard of new politics in the context of the realities of Philippine political culture and the recent efforts for political party reform along the lines of modern, Western political parties. The paper questions if such parties are feasible in the Philippine political landscape given the reality of Philippine political culture. These concerns are the basis of this study, which aims to understand the lived reality of the political Party between elections. The paper seeks to understand how a Party's narrative of self, its mythic understanding of self, can define its becoming a reformist, democratic institution.