Community Influence Systems: Structure and Change

To date, research on community influence systems reflects a heavy emphasis on structure, neglecting the processes of change. In this paper an analysis of six community case studies reveals the functional relationship between the demographic and economic institutional base of the community and the structure of the influence system. Rapid population growth is associated with a diffuse distribution of influence. Absentee-owned and operated businesses are associated with an absence of an integrated influence system. Finally, the rapid expansion of the community's economic base is associated with the development of competing power cliques. Thus, change in the organization of a community's influence system can be seen to be related to changes in other dimensions of community structure. A LTHOUGH there have been numerous studies of community power and influence systems reported in the literature over the past several years, few of these have been specifically designed to make use of the comparative method. As a result, no systematic attention has been devoted to identifying the determinants of the shape of influence systems, and little attention has been devoted to the dynamics of change in the shape of such systems. The research reported in this paper was carried out during the summer of 1952 by two research teams under the sponsorship of the Institute for Research in Social Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The principal focus of that study was the investigation of the relational system involving Air Force Bases and their host communities. During the course of the study data were obtained by means of intensive personal interviews with key officers stationed at each base and similar interviews with key leaders in the host community. The study was formulated explicitly within the framework of a comparative design and within Blackwell's theoretical framework for research in community organization.' Hunter's nominational technique was used to identify community influentials.2 Six communities are compared on the basis of the "shape" of their influence systems. Two community variables, the rate of growth of the total population and the nature of the economic base of the community, are related to the structure and patterns of change in the influence system. The literature on community power structure provides several hypotheses concerning the "determinants of the shape" of the influence system. In their article on the role of absenteeowned corporations in a community influence system, Pelligrin and Coates note that: "American cities apparently vary considerably in the extent to which dominant interest groups are united effectively for co-ordinated control of community affairs.3" They appear to view this variation as related to the patterns of leadership exhibited by the executives of absentee-owned corporations in the local community. Clapp and' Padgett relate the dynamics of expansion of the population of Tijuhana to the structure of influence in that city.4 They suggest that under conditions of rapid expansion of population the dominance of the influence structure by a single clique is modified and a "flattening" of the structure occurs. Barth and Abu-Laban report that Negro leaders in Pacific City do not appear to wield power (although they are influential).5 The relatively 1 Blackwell, Gordon W., "A Theoretical Framework for Research in Community Organization," Social Forces, Vol. 33, No. 1. 2 Hunter, Floyd, Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1954). 3 Pellegrin, Roland and Charles Coates, "AbsenteeOwned Corporations and Community Power Structure," American Journal of Sociology, LXI (March 1956). 4Klapp, Orrin E., and Vincent Padgett, "Power Structure and Decision-making in a Mexican Border City," American Journal of Sociology LXV (January 1960). 6 Barth, Ernest A. T., and Baha Abu-Laban, "Power Structure and the Negro Sub-community," American Sociological Review, 24 (February 1959). This content downloaded from 157.55.39.139 on Sat, 26 Nov 2016 04:08:37 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms COMMUNITY INFLUENCE SYSTEMS 59 small Negro population and its rapid rate of growth appear to be linked with this lack of power in that subcommunity. These studies suggest three hypotheses concerning the shape of the influence system: 1. The rate of growth of the population base of a community is related to the shape of the community influence system. Other things being equal, the more rapid the rate of growth, the more diffuse will be the distribution of community influence. 2. Absentee-owned businesses or businesses headed by persons not living in the community are found in communities with flat, or disorganized influence patterns. In such communities those who control the means of power do not participate in community affairs. 3. The rapid expansion of the economic base of a community (especially where the community population is small prior to this expansion) is related to the development of clique structures in the influence