Modernization after modernization: Scandal, trust, and vernacular moral order in Philippine politics

This article reexamines political modernization by developing a theory of vernacular moral order to explain how political legitimacy is sustained under conditions of institutional fragility. Drawing on public scandals and everyday civic discourse in the Philippines, it shows how moral reasoning is organized through vernacular grammars such as hiya, tino, and bait, which translate concerns with trust, accountability, and authority into relational practices of judgment and repair. Rather than treating scandal as institutional breakdown or moral deviance, the article theorizes scandal as a recurrent activation mechanism through which publics evaluate authority and recalibrate legitimacy when formal procedures fail to command confidence. These vernacular moral grammars do not represent residues of tradition opposed to modern politics; instead, they function as culturally embedded infrastructures that enable political order to endure despite weak institutions and persistent uncertainty. By foregrounding moral reasoning as relational, affective, and culturally situated, the article challenges institutionalist accounts of modernization and legitimacy, demonstrating how political order is sustained not by the completion of modernization but through ongoing moral coordination in its aftermath.