Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the study of the way influence works in a large American city. It describes and analyzes an urban political system in one of its aspects and contributes to the theoretical understanding of influence in political settings of all kinds. The book also describes various case studies of political influence in Chicago. The case studies tell in considerable detail how influence was used in certain recent civic controversies. The book interprets the case studies, drawing from them a set of "low level" empirical generalizations. It explores the logical structure of certain aspects of influence. The book restates certain empirical generalizations as analytical ones. The popularity in the United States of the influence approach to the study of the community is to be accounted for in part by the importance of "outside" influence in official decisions.