Local Governments, Civil Society, Democratization, and Development 115 credit, potable water, and the rehabilitation of production areas (be these idle lands taken over for agricultural production, and mangrove areas that are restored to improve aquatic resource imbalances), among others. A number of these CSO projects involve participatory designs, from the formulation, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of project outcomes. However, these projects are intrinsically limited as they are difcult to scale up to link with strategic goals. Further, many development projects are found to be embroiled in what has been referred to as the paradox of participation (Cleaver 1999) with the link between project objectives versus broader goals (e.g., empowerment, popular participation) not clearly established or claried among the project participants. A signicant limitation of civil society is its “weight,” measured in terms of the pool of people that would provide it the muscle to force the state to act favorably on their advocacy or agenda. Against a state suffering from inertia, civil society must make its presence felt before politicians who could only be swayed to act when they know that their political futures are at stake and when their constituencies are organized and effectively linked with civil society groups. Shaping civil society's muscle is easier said than done but it requires going back to and not relenting on basic strategies that have served many of these groups well in the past—organizing and popular education. The limited mass base of civil society has made it reliant on two things to inuence state action or generate active support from a generally unorganized population. The rst is the horizontal linkage among civil society groups (both domestic and global) while the second is its linkage with stakeholders from other spheres (e.g., political parties, business groups, international donor agencies) who share their interest or stance on specic issues. Intra-civil society linkages Horizontal linkages as seen in formations, coalitions and networks among civil society groups have proven to be effective in generating a consensus among diverse groups. Such linkages have proven instrumental in pushing for the enactment of a law, in monitoring government action, or in deterring the state or a key political leader, from pursuing an act that is blatantly “undemocratic.” Thus, two massive popular protests organized by CSOs pushed Pres. Ramos in 1997 to relent in his attempt to change the charter to lift term limits and Pres. Estrada to vacate the Palace in 2001. Consequently, the urban mass protests combined with the machinations of powerful forces behind the scene, the controversial ruling from the Supreme Court about Estrada's “constructive resignation”, and climaxed by the military's lack of support for the beleaguered president forced a tumultuous turnover of administrations in 2001. In both protests, civil society came in almost full force and sustained the common front chiey because the campaign did not get protracted.