• Third, resources such as information, knowledge, money, and authority are transferred from one actor to another through networks. The scarcity of resources inevitably leads individuals and organizations to become interdependent on others. Even if an organization in a resource-exchange network attempts to minimize the loss of autonomy by securing more valued resources, its relative power and influence are determined by its position or location within the overall network. Once an organization takes the dominant position by procuring more resources compared with others, the former is able to exert more control and to influence the latter. As examined in the next section, the fact that historical development has placed the state bureaucracy of Japan far above any other social institution indicates the relatively advantageous position of the government in resource-exchange networks.