Local Governments, Civil Society, Democratization, and Development 109 sphere and distinguishes it from the other spheres that make up society. More importantly, it is necessary to dene how civil society is expected to facilitate democratization, taking the latter as a type of political change. In this study, we proceed with the perspective that civil society refers to: First, a realm in the interstices of the state, political society, the market, and the society at large for organization by nonstate, nonmarket groups that take collective action in the pursuit of the public good; second, a distinct sphere for discourse and construction of normative ideals through interaction among nonstate groups on the basis of ideas and arguments; third, an autonomous arena of self-governance by nonstate actors in certain issue areas; and, fourth, an instrument for collective action to protect the autonomy of the nonstate public realm, affect regime type, and inuence the politics and policies of the state, political society, and the market. (Alagappa 2004:32) While civil society from the denition above is delineated from the state and the market, Clarke (2013) argues that there is a need to rene this “triadic model” so as to capture a “range of institutional spaces where we nd particular institutional forms” as shown in Figure 1 below. Figure 1. Expanded triadic model of state, market and civil society State Poli cal economy Market Public sphere Social economy Poli cal society Civil society The gure above captures the reality that in the Philippines, civil society groups are are formed not only by “autonomous” players within civil society but also emanate from players within the state (i.e., government organized NGOs [GoNGOs) or the market (i.e., business organized NGOs [BoNGOs] (Diokno 1997; Wui and Ferrer, 1997). In this regard, civil society, as Alagappa (2004) observes, is an arena of contestation. In civil society, through processes of discussion or deliberation, the notions of what constitute the public good—the political engagement of citizens; the limits to power of the state and the market; and the role of political society—are supposed to be freely and civilly discussed and consequently lead to collective action. As an ideally inclusive arena of contestation, it is expected that civil society organizations will