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...are some of its best traits. The basic premise that the basic contours of the Philippine political system can be made visible by analysing the history of "free election movements" is quite novel. The main idea of the work is that the Philippine oligarchy has repeatedly called upon the "people" at various times in history to defend "free elections" and "liberal democracy" in order to shore up and stave off threats to actually existing "oligarchical democracy". Its conclusion that the appeals to the "people" coming from above "in the name of civil society" have historically "crystallized" and taken on this "transformist" or co-optative role is quite perceptive in describing the contemporary role of civil society discourse in the Philippines.

Despite its positive aspects and undoubted contributions, there seems to be three major weak points in the book.

The first problem is Hedman's apparent overestimation of the role of "moral and intellectual leadership" and even of "ideological hegemony" in maintaining the stability of oligarchical rule in the Philippines. One has very great reason to doubt that the reason why the Philippine oligarchy has been in power for so...

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