Big Societies: China and the Philippines

Abstract

The patterns into which relationships shape themselves as population increases reflect a gradual willingness to share resources and rotate power among competing groups, and to allow commerce to infiltrate the collective. Trade brings physical marketplaces and cash and encourages the creation of businesses and settlements. Over the long term, organizational life fosters more affective states of mind and may spark mechanization and industrialization. These features help to define any big society. Both China and the Philippines found ways to manage tensions amongst competing groups of patrons and clients. Both necessarily turned to commerce and industrialization. Both have seen large businesses—few in number but strong in influence, and often connected to political leaders—sitting atop layers of much smaller businesses. And both have seen the growth of backdoor markets and their associated risks. These traits are understood not as an explanatory context, but as a descriptive one in which the significance of small businesses and their everyday relationships is best appreciated.