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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Wizards of Oz, July 24, 2009
This review is from: Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers (Paperback)
Floyd Hunter's, "The Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers" sums up the essential difference between "The Haves" and "Have-Nots." On page 2, Hunter captures the essence of his theory by stating, "The difference between the leaders (in a community) and other men lies in the fact that social groupings have apparently given definite social function over certain persons and not to others." In other words, in each community lies a cabal of "movers and shakers" who create public policy and influence the dynamics that go on in that environment. Nothing surprising about that! However, the notion that one lives in a democratic society where he has an equal voice in the creation of a power structure is dispelled in this book. In fact, your professional status and pedigree have more to do with you joining these ranks than anything else.
Hunter has methodically broken down the power influences in society that shape individual lives without any "ax to grind" or political ideology to promote.
This is an excellent tome for those who:
· Want to understand the concept of power in a community
· Desire to uncover how things get done in society
· Wonder why the same faces are always in the forefront of economic and social development
· Are interested in the layers of a hierarchy and where you fit in.
I highly recommend this book as a means of learning the lay of the land in a community structure and where you stand as an influencer.
Edward Brown
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute
www.charismatoday.blogspot.com
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5.0 out of 5 stars
"There appears to be a tenuous line of communication between the governors of our society and the governed..., September 25, 2009
This review is from: Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers (Paperback)
...This situation does not square with the concepts of democracy we have been taught to revere." So says Floyd Hunter in the introduction to this remarkable book that is now over 50 years old. Hunter has degrees in sociology and anthropology, and he uses the tools of these disciplines (and writes with their jargon) in analyzing the power structure of "Regional City," his pseudonym for Atlanta, Georgia. He describes a vastly different city of 1953 than exists today. The power structure is almost exclusively white, and all too many decisions were made at the Piedmont Country Club (though he does not name it). It is still the days of segregation; he refers to Georgia as "Old State," and at least puts the "Negro problem" in quotes.
In the chapter concerning the more private aspects of power, he concludes with a 15-point analysis of the elements and dynamics of power which one of Atlanta's professionals gave him and they include: "Building a little business on the side if you are a `public servant'", "the newsreels that show no news, only horse races, beauty contests, train wrecks, and screwballs," (and CNN is headquartered in Atlanta today!), "Letting the `practical boys' `buy in'", and "agreement, from top down, on the `line'". In another section, Hunter references Andrew Carnegie's concept that every man is in his place, that the preacher should preach, the physician to practice, etc., but for the few who would be `presumptuous' enough to question policy decisions that they would be: "...considered insubordinate and `punished,' first by a threat to his job security, followed possibly by expulsion from his job if his insubordination continued."
Edward Brown, in his review of this book posted at Amazon, used a great subject line: "The Real Wizards of Oz." Because this book is very much about the people "behind the curtain," who wield power with the booming voice that amplifies the decisions of a pathetic little man, and the decisions remain acceptable to the rest of us if no one pulls the curtain back. Power in "Regional City," is more than one man, of course, when power was almost exclusively in the hands of men, but the largest "takeaway" for me from this book is how FEW the men actually are. (The author has numerous circular graphs and tables that illustrate this concentration of power.) Hunter gives fictionalized names to 40, and persuasively concludes that all decisions of substance concerning the city's governance are made by them, with various "front men," like a mayor, being their mouthpieces, and in some cases, enforcers.
Over the subsequent 50 plus years, with the increased concentration of wealth in the hands of even fewer people, the concentration of power in the political process has only intensified. How many decisions that affect our lives are made in the backrooms of Davos, without even a fig leaf of a "democratic process"?
Though in ways the book is of a city whose structure has radically changed, Hunter's theme of the concentration of political and economic power in the hand of a few, and the stark contrast with the "democratic process" which purportedly gives an equal voice to all, remains an essential 5-star read today.
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