ABSTRACT
The preceding analysis of the successful uses of the vari ous roles a planner can assume should not be mistaken for a forecast that the planner can always make such strategies work. Although an ever increasing number of urban areas have recognized the need for planning and planners have therefore been given new opportunities for influence, their success is far from inevitable. The effec tive use of strategies for Influence is dependent on vari ous factors. This study has already indicated how impor tant It is for the planner to play the role appropriate to a city's decision-making system. Another variable on which the success of a particular role depends is the ability of the planner to command resources that wi l l be most effective for the action desired. The planner who must gain the confidence of principal decision-makers In a cohesive system or establish himself as a broker in the
competitive system or mobilize forces in the fragmented one does so on what have been called the "bases of influ ence," or resources. From the perspective of resources, does the planner possess the bases for influence to make attempts to play the game in his city worthwhile?
