246 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy, Second Edition CHAPTER NINE Epilogue Philippine Democratization: Summing-up Key Conceptual, Institutional, and Developmental Issues Temario C. Rivera The rst edition of Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy (2011) provided a denition of democracy that challenged the conventional minimalist and procedural understanding of the concept. In our revised and expanded edition of the book, the four original authors (Miranda, Rivera, Ronas, and Holmes) have deepened the analysis by inviting four other colleagues to share their own insights and expertise on related aspects of the democratization process in the country. All senior authors and experts in their respective elds, these colleagues include Luis V. Teodoro on media, Maria Cecilia G. Conaco on political socialization, Rene B. Azurin on elections, and Bobby M. Tuazon on the party list system. Our book offers a conceptualization of democracy that goes beyond the usual procedural framework that equates it mainly with free and competitive elections and the basic civil and political rights that enable citizens to choose their public ofcials. These are certainly critical and necessary features for the practice of democracy but not sufcient to capture the institutional and developmental demands of a sustainable democratic system of governance. Building on the earlier traditions of extensive studies on democracy and democratization in both the West and developing societies, including the relevant literature on Latin American politics, our study anchors its reexamination of democracy and its processes on two major premises: a more robust notion of accountability for public ofcials and a regime performance outcome as seen in the improvement of the quality of life of citizens over a reasonable period.1 In well-functioning democratic political systems the key institutional feature is a system of accountability for public ofcials that focus on two levels