ABSTRACT
Scholars have offered a variety of answers to the question of who governs in local communities. A traditional approach has been to focus on the forms of local government and the relative powers of mayors, city council members, and administrators. This approach does not, however, illuminate the actual relations among the official decision makers or between the decision makers and the public. Nor do the forms indicate much about the differences in political participation and influence in a community or variations in community policymaking.
