Diaspora and Democracy: Overseas Absentee Voting, Elections, and the Challenges for a Working Democracy in the Philippines

The practice of democracy, through the overseas absentee voting (OAV) law, by overseas Filipinos is a function of their material conditions abroad, the existence and actions of working institutions, as well as the dominant ideas among the migrants themselves.This paper will argue that despite the promise of the OAV law and the migrants as transformative political force, due to the problems besetting its implementation as well as the overall structure within which it operates, the current situation has fallen short of expectations of the government and the advocates, and has therefore failed to manifest clear change in Philippine politics.