Institutional change, corruption and e-government transformation in the Philippines: The Benigno Simeon Aquino III administration

Institutions direct the enduring features of political and social life and of all human behavior. While standard institutionalisms explain why these institutions continue to exist, they fall short in providing a coherent explanation for why they change. Similarly, the focus of mainstream theories of institutional change on crises as structures, disregarding agential properties, challenges their explanatory ability. Anchored on the theory of institutional change and through the utilization of archival research and documentary analysis, this paper addresses the transformation of domestic political institutions by determining the nature and direction of institutional change in the Benigno Simeon Aquino III (PNoy) administration's (2010–2016) e-governance agenda. His and the country's resolve to follow daang matuwid (straight and righteous path) saw the transformation of damaged public institutions into more transparent and responsive ones. This would not have been possible, even with the presence of both domestic and international triggers, had the President not used his institutional preferences and capacity to effectuate the change needed. Arguably, while the institutional context creates both opportunities and constraints for policy makers, the purposive actors decide whether to seek change in their structural environments. Keywords: anticorruption, e-governance, human agency, institutional change, institution