Local Governments, Civil Society, Democratization, and Development 107 CHAPTER FOUR Local Governments, Civil Society, Democratization, and Development Ronald D. Holmes Introduction Have local governments, in view of decentralization and civil society, facilitated democratization? This is the central question that this chapter addresses. The question gains even more salience in view of the fact that the Philippines has had a quarter of a century of decentralized governance. This is sufcient for local governments to produce democratic dividends from an expanded space for political participation to the strengthening of the mechanisms to secure the accountability of elected local and national ofcials. Civil society has been continually bruited to be a “democratizer” but the specic question is whether the organizations that comprise what is thought to be an autonomous space free from the effective control of the state (and the market) have contributed to a strengthening of the organizations that can effectively demand from the state the requisite reforms. We proceed from the belief that inclusive lower level governance arrangements and the heightened engagement of civil society groups of national and local government agencies will lead to a progressive and sustained redistribution of resources (political and economic), the substantive outcome that distinguishes democratic from non-democratic polities. Progressive redistribution also reduces the possibility of democratizing systems from experiencing crises rooted in the ineffectiveness of government (specically at the central/national level) in improving the quality of life of its constituents, among others.