ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of the local power structure of rural Britain through the twentieth century. The effect of discourses of power can be two-fold. Firstly, they establish the criteria against which potential leaders will be judged by presenting certain qualities as being more desirable than others. Secondly, discourses set the limits to political debate. Discourses of power create the circumstances in which a non-elite attributes power to elite thus making them powerful. The concentration of power was intensified by the multiple office-holding of several key individuals. The increased social and physical mobility of rural residents has undermined the discourse of the organic, agricultural community and the power of paternalism. The local power structure of most rural areas at the start of the twenty-first century is essentially elitist and still founded on the three dimensions of resource power, discursive power and associational power.
