IS THE PHILIPPINES HEADING TOWARDS A SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY? LESSONS FROM GERMANY

The German economy is the largest in Europe and ranked fifth globally in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) with USD 4 trillion in 2016 according to the World Bank.9 Furthermore, the country’s Gini coefficient stands at 0.292 as of 2014, below the 0.318 average of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the 14th lowest among OECD members.10 Teasing out the Intricac. [...] On the nature of social partnership in Germany, Streeck and Hassel (2003) briefly traced the origin of the tripartite relations between the government, trade unions, and employer organizations and underscored notable cracks in the foundation of social partnership as manifested by significant events. [...] The CSM gave birth to other political parties the Duterte administration, it such as the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democratic Party and the Partido should come as no surprise that Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP), which carried on the task of mainstreaming the principles of social market the social market economy concept into the domestic political scene.26 economy and calls for a shift to With PDP-Lakas n. [...] Moreover, the country’s score in the 2017 World Bank report on doing business is the lowest among the ASEAN-5 Member States.27 Further, the government is still in the process of reviving the manufacturing industry and caps on foreign ownership as well as provision against foreign professionals deter the total entry of overseas investments into the local sphere. [...] Katigbak is a Foreign Affairs Research The views expressed in this publication are of the authors Specialist with the Center of International Relations and alone and do not reflect the official position of the Foreign Strategic Studies of the Foreign Service Institute.