Suchergebnisse

The debate among sociologists and political scientists about community power structure was concerned primarily with questions of methodology and the appropriate imagery for describing the distribution of power in American communities. The question of what difference it made for a local community and its citizens, if any, whether power was narrowly concentrated or widely dispersed was seldom raised. Two alternative hypotheses relating the concentration of community power to community-mobilization are discussed. The first argues for a positive relationship between concentration of power and community-mobilization while the second argues the obverse of this hypothesis. A diffusion-of-power scale is constructed based on a content-analysis of thirty-one American communities that were the subject of decision-making studies, and this scale is related to community participation in four federal self-help programs—public housing, urban renewal, Model Cities, and the war on poverty. The results show that the cities in which power is most diffused have greater participation in these programs. An outline of some key concepts that may be most appropriate for explaining such findings is suggested.

The debate among sociol'ts & pol'al sci'ts about community power structure was concerned primarily with questions of methodology & the appropriate imagery for describing the distribution of power in US communities. The question of what cliff it made for a local community & its citizens, if any, whether power was narrowly concentrated or widely dispersed, was seldom raised. 2 alternative hyp's relating the concentration of community power to community mobilization are discussed. The first argues for a positive relationship between concentration of power & community mobilization, while the 2nd argues the obverse of this hyp. A diffusion-of-power scale is constructed based on a content analysis of 31 Amer communities that were the subject of decision-making studies, & this scale is related to community participation in 4 federal self-help programs - public housing, Ur renewal, Model Cities, & the war on poverty. The results show that the cities in which power is most diffused have greater participation in these programs. An outline of some key concepts that may be most appropriate for explaining such findings is suggested. Modified HA.

Patterns of public policies as reflected by the expenditure of local governments of 196 Belgian cities are examined in the context of five hypotheses explaining variations in expenditure patterns. The role a city plays in the urban system of the nation-state, as reflected by the index of ecological centrality, is found to have the most pervasive effect on various types of expenditures. Population stagnation of cities, the explanation of which is essentially political, is also found to be an important factor affecting most types of expenditures, although it is in reality a surrogate for region. Socialist-controlled cities are found to spend more on social welfare expenditures than Catholic-controlled cities, but the effect of the ideological orientation of the dominant party in local politics is restricted to these kinds of expenditures. Finally, the degree of political competitiveness is found to have little or no effect on expenditures once other factors are controlled. The importance of politics in the explanation of public policies in cities is reassessed in the light of these findings.

This study explores several variables that characterize organic organization to test whether they are associated with varying rates of innovation. The number of occupational specialities, the intensity of scheduled and unscheduled communication and, to a lesser extent, the decentralization of decision-making, are related to innovation. A review of the literature suggests other factors that are also associated with innovation: slack resources, joint programs, size, and history of innovation. With the exception of size, most of these factors are also found to be highly correlated with innovation. Our conclusion is that perhaps the technological gap is an organizational one and that, therefore, the solution to `the American challenge' is an organic form of organization.

Two hypotheses relating occupational mobility to kinship involvement are examined: (1) the interaction hypothesis, which argues that the occupationally mobile, either upward or downward, have less involvement with their kin, and (2) the median hypothesis, which argues that occupational mobility has no uniformly depressing effect on kinship involvement but rather that kinship involvement is simply an additive function of the class of origin and the class of destination. The median hypothesis is supported. On the other hand, the interaction hypothesis is supported in the case of religious mobility. The implications of these different findings are explored.