ABSTRACT
The central city ordinarily encompasses the bulk of the highly urban neighborhoods for it inherits its physical structure from the paleotechnic city of the railroad. Within the central city and suburbs alike, community actors are more likely to know the political score and to vote in local elections. The small-scale community of limited liability in the suburbs does not have the "box office appeal" that major government manifests. Staying close to home, operated by amateurs and part-time politicians the suburban political community has been overlooked or rejected by a substantial proportion of its citizenry. The structure of local government in the suburbs is horizontal and diffuse. A maze of small governmental units organizes the suburban sprawl for those unavoidable common tasks that only government can perform. The net result of the Democratic victory in the central city has been the strengthening of the incumbent officials and a merging of latent and manifest political leadership, of party roles and governmental roles.
