Presidentialism and Executive Orders on Sustainable Development in the Philippines, 1946-2025: Cabinet Coalescence and Cabinet Size

Authors

  • Adfin Rochmad Baidhowah Department of Public Policy, Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri (IPDN), Indonesia
  • Iwan Satibi Postgraduate School, Pasundan University, Indonesia
  • Ummu Salamah Postgraduate School, Pasundan University, Indonesia
  • Andi Pitono Department of Public Policy, Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri (IPDN), Indonesia
  • Heru Sulistiyo Department of Economic Development and People Empowerment, Institut Pemerintahan Dalam Negeri (IPDN), Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62503/gr.v4i2.71

Keywords:

Sustainable Development, Presidentialism, Executive Orders, Executive-legislative Relations

Abstract

Progress of achieving sustainable development around the world varies including the Philippines. While most current literature has explained that economic growth, digital and technological development, natural resource management with protection, social and economic inclusion, inclusive human development, sustainable infrastructure management, public awareness, governance, and rule of law are the main powerful factors that determine progress, limited research analyzes on the law-making process under the presidential system through executive order issuance. To provide evidence and analyze the pattern, this study uses Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis on the 5,357 executive orders in 1946-2025. The empirical and statistical findings show that under sustainable development context, the higher level of cabinet coalescence which represents a more equal distribution of the positions of ministries for the presidents’ coalition based on the number of seats owned by the coalition in the legislature arena, and the bigger cabinet size which represents big number of political parties support in the legislature arena, then the more the presidents of the Philippines issue executive orders related with sustainable development. This result confirms that executive orders issuance related with sustainable development represent a crucial analytical window to a new knowledge in which state intervention policy on sustainable development in the presidentialism system under multi political party is subject to the government cabinet dynamics. 

References

Abueva, J. V. (2002). Towards a federal republic of the Philippines with a parliamentary government by 2010: A draft constitution. Kalayaan College.

Al-Humaiqani, M. M., & Al-Ghamdi, S. G. (2022). The built environment resilience qualities to climate change impact: Concepts, frameworks, and directions for future research. Sustainable Cities and Society, 80, 103797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.103797

Asongu, S. A., & Odhiambo, N. M. (2019). Environmental degradation and inclusive human development in sub-Saharan Africa. Sustainable Development, 27(1), 25–34. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1858

Bersch, K., Praça, S., & Taylor, M. M. (2017). State capacity, bureaucratic politicization, and corruption in the Brazilian state. Governance, 30(1), 105–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12196

Boguszewski, R., Piłat, A., & Węgrzyn, P. (2024). Global lessons from local actions: A typology of Polish local government approaches to sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 32(1), 682–695. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2698

Bolton, A., & Thrower, S. (2016). Legislative capacity and executive unilateralism. American Journal of Political Science, 60(3), 649–663. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12190

Bräuninger, T., Debus, M., & Wüst, F. (2017). Governments, parliaments and legislative activity. Political Science Research and Methods, 5(3), 529–554. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2015.29

Celik, A., & Kostekci, A. (2025). Empirical exploration of the drivers of human development in Central and West Asian countries: How effective are control of corruption, political stability and the rule of law? Sustainable Development, 33(3), 4652–4675. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3365

Chiou, F., & Rothenberg, L. S. (2014). The elusive search for presidential power. American Journal of Political Science, 58(3), 653–668. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12057

Christenson, D. P., & Kriner, D. L. (2019). Does public opinion constrain presidential unilateralism? American Political Science Review, 113(4), 1071–1077. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055419000327

Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Knutsen, C. H., Lindberg, S. I., Teorell, J., Altman, D., Angiolillo, F., Bernhard, M., Cornell, A., Fish, M. S., Fox, L., Gastaldi, L., Gjerløw, H., Glynn, A., God, A. G., Hicken, A., Kinzelbach, K., Krusell, J., Marquardt, K. L., … Ziblatt, D. (2026). V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] dataset v16 [Data set]. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds26

Cox, R. W. (1988). Politics, legislatures, and public administration. The American Review of Public Administration, 18(1), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/027507408801800105

Crotty, J., & Hall, S. M. (2014). Environmental awareness and sustainable development in the Russian Federation. Sustainable Development, 22(5), 311–320. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1542

Daoud, A. O., Kineber, A. F., Ali, A. H., & Elseknidy, M. (2025). Empowering sustainable infrastructure and Sustainable Development Goals through Industry 5.0 implementation. Sustainable Development, 33(3), 4309–4332. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3347

de Dios, E. S. (2002). Nationalism and the strong state in the 1935 Philippine Constitution. Philippine Review of Economics, 39(1), 1–19.

Dressel, B., & Bonoan, C. R. (2019). Southeast Asia’s troubling elections: Duterte versus the rule of law. Journal of Democracy, 30(4), 134–148. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2019.0057

Dressel, B., & Bonoan, C. R. (2024). Courts and authoritarian populism in Asia: Reflections from Indonesia and the Philippines. Law & Policy, 46(3), 277–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12240

Ferdous, J., & Eslamian, S. (2026). Social inclusion and environmental concerns in a sustainable age. In S. Eslamian & F. Eslamian (Eds.), Global nexus handbook (pp. 975–988). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394248087.ch53

Fine, J. A., & Warber, A. L. (2012). Circumventing adversity: Executive orders and divided government. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 42(2), 256–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.03965.x

Fionna, U., & Tomsa, D. (2020). Changing patterns of factionalism in Indonesia: From principle to patronage. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 39(1), 39–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1868103419896904

Holden, E., Linnerud, K., & Bøe, V. (2025). Sustainable development: Notions, numbers, and narratives. Sustainable Development, 33(2), 2812–2825. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3261

Holum, M. L., & Jakobsen, T. G. (2024). Economic growth versus the environment: Government spending, trust, and citizen support for environmental protection. Environmental Sociology, 10(4), 420–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2024.2398503

Khan, M., Behrendt, K., Papadas, D., Arnold, L., & Sultana, A. (2025). From inequalities to inclusion: Sustainable development for smallholders. Sustainable Development, 33(S1), 1520–1536. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70073

Kumari, A., Ghosh, M., & Pratap Singh, M. (2025). Deep dive into Sustainable Development Goals through the lens of triple bottom line: Past, present, and future. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 42(3), 352–376. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.70004

Lee, D. S. (2024a). A theory of presidential government formation in new democracies. In The president's dilemma in Asia (pp. 25–64). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192870186.003.0002

Lee, D. S. (2024b). Case studies: Presidential government formation in Asia compared. In The president's dilemma in Asia (pp. 65–102). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192870186.003.0003

Lee, D. S. (2024c). Institutional constraints across dimensions and presidential cabinet choices. In The president's dilemma in Asia (pp. 195–224). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192870186.003.0008

Matsumoto, M. (2013). Presidential strength and party leadership in Taiwan. In Y. Kasuya (Ed.), Presidents, assemblies and policy-making in Asia (pp. 107–133). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137315083_6

Mayer, K. R. (1999). Executive orders and presidential power. The Journal of Politics, 61(2), 445–466. https://doi.org/10.2307/2647511

Mayer, K. R., & Price, K. (2002). Unilateral presidential powers: Significant executive orders, 1949–99. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 32(2), 367–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0360-4918.2002.00225.x

Megerssa, G. R., Garedew, W., Bekele, A. E., Grabs, J., & Jespersen, K. (2025). How do institutions shape the resilience of the Ethiopian coffee sector amidst the pressures of climate change? Sustainable Development, 33(6), 7951–7973. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70065

Mensah, J. (2019). Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: Literature review. Cogent Social Sciences, 5(1), Article 1653531. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1653531

Neto, O. A. (2000). Gabinetes presidenciais, ciclos eleitorais e disciplina legislativa no Brasil. Dados, 43(3), 479–519. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0011-52582000000300003

O’Brien, K., Pelling, M., Patwardhan, A., Hallegatte, S., Maskrey, A., Oki, T., Oswald-Spring, Ú., Wilbanks, T., Yanda, P. Z., Giupponi, C., Mimura, N., Berkhout, F., Biggs, R., Brauch, H. G., Brown, K., Folke, C., Harrington, L., Kunreuther, H., Lacambra, C., … Viguié, V. (2012). Toward a sustainable and resilient future. In C. B. Field, V. Barros, T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, D. J. Dokken, K. L. Ebi, M. D. Mastrandrea, K. J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S. K. Allen, M. Tignor, & P. M. Midgley (Eds.), Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation (pp. 437–486). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139177245.011

Özmen, M. (2025). Analyzing public environmental awareness using advanced machine learning for sustainable urban transportation. Sustainable Development, 33(6), 8619–8637. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70122

Pereira, C., Power, T. J., & Rennó, L. (2005). Under what conditions do presidents resort to decree power? Theory and evidence from the Brazilian case. The Journal of Politics, 67(1), 178–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00313.x

Protsyk, O. (2004). Ruling with decrees: Presidential decree making in Russia and Ukraine. Europe-Asia Studies, 56(5), 637–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966813041000235083

Reeves, A., & Rogowski, J. C. (2015). Public opinion toward presidential power. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 45(4), 742–759. https://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12227

Remington, T. F. (2014). Presidential decrees in Russia. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139629355

Rudalevige, A. (2012). The contemporary presidency: Executive orders and presidential unilateralism. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 42(1), 138–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.03945.x

Sachs, J. D., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., & Iablonovski, G. (2025). Sustainable development report 2025: Financing sustainable development to 2030 and mid-century. SDSN; Dublin University Press. https://doi.org/10.25546/111909

Slater, D. (2018). Party cartelization, Indonesian-style: Presidential power-sharing and the contingency of democratic opposition. Journal of East Asian Studies, 18(1), 23–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/jea.2017.26

Teehankee, J. C. (2020). Factional dynamics in Philippine party politics, 1900–2019. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 39(1), 98–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1868103420913404

Tzoumis, K., Bennett, S., & Stoffel, E. (2015). The executive order in the United States: A policy tool used that has shaped environmental policy and decisions from Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama. Environment Systems and Decisions, 35(3), 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-015-9559-0

Ugwoke, C. J., Ukeachusim, C. P., & Chuks, O. U. (2026). Democratic governance and sustainable development in Africa: A comparative analysis of Nigeria and Mauritius. Sustainable Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.71068

Varriale, V., Camilleri, M. A., Cammarano, A., Michelino, F., Müller, J., & Strazzullo, S. (2025). Unleashing digital transformation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals across multiple sectors. Sustainable Development, 33(1), 565–579. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3139

World Bank. (2026). Economic growth and inflation in the Philippines. https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators

Zhou, Y., Ajide, I. N., & Ajide, K. B. (2026). Political corruption, state functionality, and sustainable development: Evidence from African economies. Sustainable Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.71084

Downloads

Published

2026-11-06