ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at political capital in rural communities. It examines theories and ways of measuring community power, sources of power or vested interests, and the importance of outside linkages to community power. The chapter also examines some of the implications that various power structures have for community development and change. It describes four approaches to the study of community power: pluralism, elitism, class-based analysis, and "the growth machine," a variant of the class-based approach. An important dimension of power is the means by which it is exercised, including physical force, institutionalized force or authority, and influence. The community theorists who take a power elite perspective, however, see a pyramidal structure of power: a few individuals representing key economic institutions with like interests have the largest influence on what happens in towns, large and small. Class-based theories of community power focus attention on the economic roots of power.
