Receiving Ideas in Political Analysis: The Case of Community Power Studies, 1950-1970

1980 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 451 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ricci
Keyword(s):  
Community Power ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Power Studies

Community Power, Power Studies and the Sociology of Knowledge

1970 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Curtis ◽  
John Petras
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Knowledge Perspective ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Power Studies ◽  
Community Power Structures

American social scientists have long been interested in community power structures, but most methodological and substantive developments in this area of research have occurred only in the past fifteen years or so. The published social science literature bearing on this topic now includes well over six hundred items written primarily by political scientists and sociologists. There have been over eighty systematic attempts to present an overall, composite description of the structure of power in particular communities; this research will be our central concern in this paper. These studies are accompanied in the literature by hundreds of critiques of methodological approaches, attempts at conceptual refinement, studies of narrower facets of community political processes, and reviews and commentaries on particular studies. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to consider the field of community power from a sociology of knowledge perspective by extending the discussion in an earlier research note, and secondly, to point to some procedural guides that seem appropriate for use in further research in this and other areas characterized by "chronic controversies."

Power Structure and its Communication Behavior in San José, Costa Rica

1967 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold T. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Power Structure ◽  
Standard Technique ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Communication Behavior ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Power Studies ◽  
Community Power Structures ◽  
Problem Solving Process

The word “community” has been defined as a “structuring of elements and dimensions to solve problems which must be or can be solved within the local area.” This problem-solving process by which the community is directed, segmented, and formed into a structure has been the basis of many community power studies. Floyd Hunter was among the first to study this process, employing what has been termed the reputational method of community study. This method is now considered a standard technique for determining community power structures. It consists of a series of interviews with selected community knowledgeables who are asked to name the most influential individuals in the area. This is followed by a second round of interviews with those influentials who received the highest number of “votes” or mentions from the knowledgeables, asking them for a similar listing in order to rank the group of influentials according to their power in the community.

Social and Political Power

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Dowding
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Great Community ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Power Studies ◽  
Structural Positions

Power is a complex topic that is viewed in entirely different ways by different writers. Power can be seen as a property of agents, with some agents having more power than others. It can be seen as a property of social systems, where structures hold power. It can also be seen in terms of specific actions by people to coerce or dominate, or it can be regarded as a subliminal force that leads people to think and behave in one way rather than another. It can be analyzed descriptively to try to explain how it is distributed, and critically to argue for changing structures to provide a more egalitarian and fairer distribution.Power studies flourished in the great community power studies of the 1950s and 1960s. Some of these works suggested that democratic nations were controlled by powerful elites who ruled in their own interests; some that power was more widely distributed and elites could not simply rule for themselves; others that in capitalist societies, despite some counterexamples, elites generally ruled in favor of developers and capitalists. Later studies examined how people’s interests are defined in terms of the structural positions in which they find themselves, and how the very ways in which we think and express ourselves affect our individual powers.

State Power Structures

2019 ◽  
pp. 113-142
Author(s):  
Keith Dowding
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Policy Network ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
State Autonomy ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Power Studies ◽  
Network Approaches

Where Chapter 5 concentrated on the power debate in terms of the community power studies, Chapter 6 turns the argument to more general theories of the state notably pluralism and state autonomy theses. It critiques the policy community and policy network approaches notably in their claim that every policy has to be sold to influential constituencies. It also critiques the autonomy of the state thesis. Whilst pluralism has too rosy a picture of the relative power and influence of different sets of groups, the state autonomy thesis does not take enough account of the fact that the state is made up of numerous competing interests at all levels. It reviews the way in which rational choice models are utilized to examine different constituencies and sets of actors in the modern state. It then examines structural accounts of power in society and shows how long-term interests can be difficult to promote given the myopia that can accompany the manner in which politicians, with an eye on the electoral cycle act so as to increase their probability of being elected. It discusses the systematic luck of some groups and the systematic luck and the power of finance capital. Often the most pernicious aspects of the power and luck structure is the systematic luck of some groups that get what they want without having to wield the powers they enjoy. It concludes with an analysis of the role of business in the policy process examining the two logics of collective action. It summarizes how we measure power by looking at the five resources that bring power.

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