Decentrallzation of Power
In addition to changes in power relation at the societal level,
Changes are taking place the level of community. In most American communities, power is diffused to a considerable degree. Thomas R.Dye (1986:49) contends that the community’s power elite is land, and those who control land use are the community’s power elite. They include mortgage bankers, real estate developers, builders, and landowners. Community elites, Day argues, are different from national elites in their economic function. At the local level, the elites’ function is to prepare land for capital investment. But their power is limited, for they cannot control the destinies of their communities. Their power is limited to economic development decisions, and they secure mass support for their policies by emphasizing prospects for more jobs and small business opportunities. There is no single center of power, and Paul E. Mott (1970:85-86) cites the factors or conditions that favour an increase in the number of local centers of power and in the number of power relations. “ The number of centers of power is to increase as 1) the population (of the community) increases, 2) the ethnic composition becomes more heterogeneous, 3) functional specialization increases, 4) the number of self-conscious social classes increases, 5) as inmigration increases. ”