Philippines vs Turkey: A Comparative Study - Essay Sample

Introduction

The following study juxtaposes Philippines and Turkey. Turkey is a country located between the eastern side of Europe and the Western part of Asia. Therefore it essentially lies in the region between the two major continents. The country is historically connected to the ancient regions of Ottoman Empires, Byzantine Empire, Greek, Persian and Roman regions. The country is home to both Islamic and Christian Mosaics. The capital city of the nation is Ankara and the country has a population of 80 million inhabitants. Philippines is a country located in the southeastern sphere of Asia and borders the Pacific Ocean. The country has more than 7,600 Islands grouped under three main categories. The regions include the Visayas, Mindanao, and Luzon. The capital of the southeastern Asian nation is Manila and the country has a population of more than 100 million inhabitants.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Systems of Administration

Philippines is a republic or a unitary state that uses the parliamentary republic system headed by a democratically elected President with the current President being Rodrigo Duerte (Schriever). Similarly, Turkey is the Presidential Republic in which an elected President serves as both the head of state and the head of government. He holds the power to appoint heads of state institutions and judges and issues executive decrees (Knoepfler). Whereas the official languages in Philippines are English and Filipino, the Turkish speak Turkish among other languages like Arabic, Zazaki, and Kurmanji. The Turkish use Turkish to conduct commerce and as their official language of educational instruction just as Philippines use English and Filipo.

Population and GDP

With a population of 80 million inhabitants, Turkey has a Gross Domestic Products of $851.1 billion. On the other hand, Philippines has a population of 104 million inhabitants surviving on a Gross Domestic Product of $313.6 billion (Knoepfler). Whereas the population density of Philippines is 363 per Km2, the median age of the people in the country is 23.4 years. On the other hand, Turkey has a population density of 783,562 per Km2, and a median age of 30.2 years (Knoepfler). As of the year 2017, the GDP per capita for Turkey stands at 10,540.62 USD whereas that of Philippines stands at 2,988.95 USD. As of 2015, the World Bank estimates that the GINI Coefficient for Philippines stands at 40.10 whereas that of Turkey stands at 41.20 as of 2014 (Schriever).

The Quality of Life

Various factors contribute to the quality of life and these include aspects like infant mortality, life expectancy, levels of literacy and levels of education. By the year 2014, the number of deaths in Turkey rose by 4.7 percent to become 390,000 deaths in a year (Knoepfler). Of the total number, 54 percent represent males and 45 percent represent females with infants closing in at 11 percent. There are normally 11.1 deaths of infants in every a thousand births. The number of infants that die on their first month stands at 67 percent (Knoepfler). Some of the leading causes of infant deaths include premature births and congenital complications. The state of Philippines has an infant mortality rate of 13 deaths in every thousand births. Similarly, statistics records show that more than 2.5 percent of infants die due to congenital conditions like heart disease, diseases of the vascular system, pneumonia and all forms of tuberculosis. Sepsis remains the leading cause of infant mortality in the country (Human Development Reports).

As of 2016, the average life expectancy in Turkey was 76 years with women living longer than men by an average of 5.5 years. In spite of the figures, the average life expectancy in Turkey stands at a lower rate than that in the European Union. On the other hand, the average life expectancy in Philippines stands at 69 years for both men and women (Human Rights Watch). Like Turkey, however, females are expected to live longer than males in Philippines. The country has a world life expectancy level of 123. Turkey and Philippines are similar in the sense that they both share in the leading cause of death which is congenital diseases. Of all the employees in Turkey, 33 percent of them work for long hours with the highest rates being in the Turkish capital where the rate increases by 11 percent (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights). The country has a high index of pollution that stands at more than 68 percent which is higher than the normal recommended rate.

The rates of literacy in both Philippines and Turkey have greatly improved at the wake of social media and technology. For instance, more than 8 million Pilipino have had access to secondary education and more than 13 million of the population has had access to primary education (World Report 2019). The literacy levels in Turkey stand at 96 percent among the whole population with 98 percent for males and 93 percent for females. While 10 million have access to secondary education, more than 5 million have access to primary education. The government of Turkey understands the crucial role that social welfare plays in enhancing the lives of the civilians and hence for the past 15 years, the country has maintained a stable economic policy while at the same time making great strides in the very area of social welfare policy (Eseh). Initially, the resources allocated for the social care expenditure in the year 2002 was 1.3 billion TL and the figure rose to more than 45 billion TL by the year 2017. Besides the improvement in the social welfare expenditure allocation, other comprehensive structural reforms have been implemented for the sake of social security with regards to healthcare policies, labor markets, and social assistance.

Similar to Turkey, the government of Philippines has created and implemented various legislations and policies that aim to improve social welfare for the civilians in the country (World Report 2019). The projects implemented by the government have helped in the acceleration of the pace for reforms for the agenda in social protection by the expansion of the conditions of cash transfer programs as well as updating a unified targeting system (World Bank). More than 20 million Filipinos have been enrolled in the government social security program and this represents 4 million households. The program offers incentives for the parents to invest in the livelihoods and the future of their children and this is the largest such program in the world (World Bank).

Unlike Philippines, Turkey is largely a free market economy that is driven by the service and the industry sectors. Traditional agricultural sectors in the country account to more than 25 percent of the country's economy and employment. The country has undergone an aggressive privatization program that has reduced the involvement of the state in the communication, transport and banking industries. The electronics, automotive as well as construction industries have come to occupy an essential place in the economy of the country. On the other hand, the economy of Philippines has weathered financial and economic downturns compared to that of Turkey due to its reduced exposure to troubled international securities (World Report 2019). The country has a lower dependence on exports and a population that is dependent on local production as opposed to imports. Philippines has a rapidly expanding process of the business outsourcing industry.

Political History of the Two Countries

The commonwealth of Philippines was established in the year 1935 after the approval of the United States. The country then elected its first President in the same year. The United States then granted the new republic full independence in the year 1946. On the other hand, Turkey became a founding member of the OECD in the year 1961. It later became an associate member of the EEC in the year 1963. As mentioned earlier, Philippines is governed by a unitary government under a Presidential representative and democratic. The government is divided into the executive, legislature and the judiciary. Philippines has a multi-party kind of political systems and many parties in the grassroots. Similarly, Turkey is a multi-party democracy that has many political parties which must work together to form political coalitions.

Philippines uses a unitary system of government because it allows power to trickle down from a central government to other devolved units of government. Different from Philippines, Turkey has a Presidential system of government aimed at ruling out military interference in the legislative process (Karubas). This was agreed to in a referendum in 2017 after the country had experienced seven major military interventions in the past 60 years. The Military elites of the country are known to execute court-martial and imprison democratically elected leaders who intervened for civilians (Karubas). The system is therefore expected to guarantee limited military interventions in the country.

The state of civil society and social justice in Turkey is one of the worst in the world. The Turkish Government lifted a nationwide state of emergency that had been imposed at the brink of a failed coup attempt in 2016 pitting the relations between the state and the civil society in a state of deterioration (ICNL). Moreover, the country transitioned to an executive Presidency system at the beginning of the reign of President Erdogan. The new system of government replaced the parliamentary system and this new system granted the president full executive powers on the constitution. The new president ensured the re-organization of the central government to ensure the rearrangement of the main policymakers. Additionally, it has been arranged to ensure a definition of their roles in the new system as well as their functions in the process of policymaking (ICNL). All the same, civil society remains at the heart of the process of democratization of Turkey.

Philippines is similar to Turkey with regards to the state of the civil societies because the government makes it difficult for the state to co-exist with members of any such organizations that fight for the rights of civilians. An extremely powerful executive led by an all-powerful president makes it hard for the civil society to thrive and this paves way for issues such as patronage and corruption, and an environment of power center competition (Lorch 135). Although the elections and the political process is highly participatory in Turkey, the same cannot be said about the threshold for political pluralism (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights).

The 60 years of military intervention in Turkey have left the country politically unstable and at the center of political unrest. The latest election in the country occurred under a state of emergency and created a sense of media censorship as well as the repression of people perceived to be government critics and enemies (World Report 2019). Although modeled to prevent any future events of attempted coups, the system of leadership lacks the required balances and checks over the abuse of the office of the executive. Moreover, it consolidates the control of the president over most of the judicial appointments and diminishes the power of the parliament. On the other hand, the President of Philippines enjoys great power against other arms of the government.

Social History of Turkey and Philippines

Violence against women appears to be the most pervasive social problem that has continued to recur in the history of Philippines. According to the Philippine Commission on Women (2019), one in every 5 women has experienced instances of violence in one way or the other in Philippines since 2008 to present. Instances of violence against women are politically instigated and thought to be a result of the unequal distribution of power between men and women. On the other...