THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC DOMINANTS IN COMMUNITY POWER STRUCTURE.

This article reports some findings of investigation of the power structure of middle-sized American community, findings concerned primarily with the historical role of the economic dominants in that community's power structure. Although the study has among its numerous limitations those inevitable in any piece of single-community research, it is hoped that it might be theoretically and methodologically suggestive for research in other communities, especially those which have become satellites in a society increasingly dominated by giant metropolitan centers and large national corporations. The rudimentary theory underlying this research may be briefly summarized. The basic assumption was that as the functional relationship of the community to the larger society changes, so does the nature and form of its control structure, and so, too, does the role of its economic dominants in that structure. With increasing urbanization, it was suggested that the economic dominants would begin to withdraw their interest and active attention from the local socio-political system.