ABSTRACT
The interest of some anthropologists in comparative political micro research and their phrasing of power as influence over decisions and policy formation are amenable to the consideration of local Greenburgh politics. The forty-seven think of power in essentially the same terms as these anthropologists—bringing influence of one kind or another to bear on any given situation—although they address questions of motivation in individual rather than general terms. The district leaders do not claim a great deal of power but few of them talk of its lack. In general they think that power means the ability to influence people and events, to get things done. F. G. Bailey’s interest in gamesmanship has been termed “game theory” and by others, but that term has long been applied to an abstract mathematical discipline to predict optimal behavior of participants in games of strategy in various kinds of situations, and Bailey explicitly denies any ability in that direction.
