ABSTRACT
Civic controversies in Chicago are not generated by the efforts of politicians to win votes, by differences of ideology or group interest, or by the behind-the-scenes efforts of a power elite. The influence of the "civic leader", it has been suggested, depends mainly upon his ability to get the proposals of an affected organization accepted by one or more of the political heads. A state welfare agency proposed putting the city welfare department into the county welfare department, and the city department resisted. In the Welfare Merger case, a firm of management consultants produced a "study" justifying the decisions a Republican senator had reached long before. The association's influence with the political heads and with prospective contributors, members, and supporters depends in part upon what it "represents" or symbolizes. In a political system in which privacy is provided through formal devices, less attention would have to be paid to the various forms of "window-dressing".
