ABSTRACT
The institutional structure of a society must be regarded as a special aspect of the total social system. Institutions are those patterns which define the essentials of the legitimately expected behavior of persons insofar as they perform structurally important roles in the social system. The problem of control of German institutional structure may be put, therefore, in terms of the following three major objectives: to eliminate the specific Nazi synthesis of the two major components of German character; to eliminate, or at least seriously reduce, the structural role of the hierarchical, authoritarian and formalistic elements in the "conservative" German institutional structure; to displace the conservative pattern. In selecting points at which to exert such control three primary considerations are most important: first, accessibility to effective influence; second, strategic significance in the total system of the structure affected; and, third, vulnerability to serious boomerang repercussions which might nullify the desired effect.
