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POWER STRUCTURE AND ETS COMMUNICATION
BEHAVIOR IN. SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

Thesis for flu Demo (fl AL A. ‘
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
HaroId ‘F. Edwards
I963

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University

  

ABSTRACT

POWER STRUCTURE AND ITS COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR

IN SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

by Harold T._Edwards

The two-fold purpose of this research project was to locate the
power structure of the city of San Jose, Costa Rica, and to describe
its intergroup communication behaviors. This was accomplished by
applying the following methodological procedures:

I. Data was collected through interviews with know-

ledgeables which produced a list of the consti-
tuency of the power structure;

2. From questionnaires presented to the top
influentials, further data was obtained which
gave:

a. demographic characteristics;

b. measures of formal, informal, and written
intergroup communication;

c. measures of general community influence
for each of the T.l.;

d. measures of influence on two specific
community problems.

3. Data from open-ended oral questions asked of the
T.I. informants produced further estimates of
community influence.

Through the use of this method, it was found that a community
power structure exists in the city of San Jose which is composed of
older, well-educated men who are primarily representative of govern-

ment, agriculture, business, and the professions. By means of the

"power synthesis“ technique, it was found that the various community

Harold T. Edwards

leaders did not all share the same degree of power, but no one indi-
vidual was found who completely "ran the city."

The method also disclosed that within the power complex there is
a high degree of communication. The influentials see and talk to each
other. While the flow of this communication is general, there are two
sub-groups of cliques existant within the power structure. One can be
referred to as the "in" clique and the other as the "out" clique be-
cause one is representative of the party in power and the other repre-
sents the opposition party. To the former, more community influence
is ascribed, to the latter, less. These two sub-cliques are firmly
connected, however, by intermediaries.

The key influentials are by and large the people who have a higher
degree of inter-group communication, and the top four K.I. are also
the top four communicators when the total communication scores are com-
bined. The key influentials are also representative of both sub-groups
since there is almost equal representation in the K.I. group.

Through a process of comparing San Jose to other communities al-
ready studied, lt was learned that even though it is in Latin America
and a capital city it was not remarkably different from other com-
munities, especially when agriculture was combined with business
because of the same role function since the other communities have a
higher representation of business than any other community sector.

By comparison we also learned that influentials tend to perceive
their power role through a socially acceptable position while the

general public tends to perceive just the opposite. lnfluentials in

Harold T. Edwards

San Jose perceive themselves to be relatively influential as a group,
but they also maintain that no small single group makes all the im-
portant decisions nor that decision-makers seek to satisfy their own
interests, nor that decision-making is done privately.

Because of the high degree of inter-group communication, we can
conclude that the T.I. in San Jose constitute a group complete with
cliques and intermediaries. We can also see that there is broad
representation of community sectors in the power structure, and that
the characteristics of the power elite in San Jose are similar to

those of other community elite groups studied in the same manner.

POWER STRUCTURE AND ITS COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR

IN SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA

by

Harold T. Edwards

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of General Communication Arts

l963

 

(approved)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project would have been impossible had it not been for the
guidance of Dr. Paul J. Deutschmann who freely gave of his time and
knowledge so that this, another step toward understanding community
power structure, might be taken. Great thanks should also be ex-
pressed to Drs. Charles P. Loomis, William H. Form, David K. Berlo,
and Fred P. Waisanen who served as advisers in providing ideas,
reading the manuscript, and in giving general comments throughout
the period of study.

I would also like to thank the "Pr09rama Interamericano de Infor-
maciOn Popular" in San Jose, the Board of Missions of the Methodist
Church, and Methodist High School and its Director, Mr. Jesse M. Vun-
cannon, for providing an environment in which this study of San Jose
could be conducted. The illustration was drawn by Mr. Glenn H. Dewey,
and the manuscript was typed by Mrs. Lyllis Vuncannon who both de-
serve high recommendation for a task well done. To the twenty-nine
influentials in San Jose, I would like to express my sincere appre-

ciation. They are among the finest pe0ple that I have ever met.

TABLE OF

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. . . . . . . . .
LIST OF TABLES. . . . . . . . . .
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . .
INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter

I. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA. .

The Larger Context
The Research Site

II. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
SAN JOSE. . . . . e . .

Power and Procedures

FOR

The Method Used in San Jose

CONTENTS

THE STUDY

THE STUDY

OF POWER IN

OF POWER IN

0 O O O O 0

III. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Power Structure in San Jose
Communication Behavior in the Power Structure

General Comparisons
Summary

BIBLIOGRAPHY. O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

22

54

IIS

Table
I.

I0.

ll.

12.

I3.

Il-i.
IS.
16.
I7.
18.

LIST OF TABLES

Distribution of Mentions of Influentials by Knowledge-

ables. O O O O I O O O O C O C O O O O O O O O O O 0

Distribution of Mentions of Influentials by Members of
T0p Influential Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Distribution of Mentions of Influentials by T. I. Group
for Orphanage Project and New Industry Project . . .

Education and Age Distribution of K.I. and T.I. . . . .

Power Rank, Primary and Secondary Occupational Roles of
the Twenty-Nine Influentials . . . . . . . . . . . .

Distribution of IO K.I. and I9 S.I. by Principal and
' Secondary Occupational Roles . . . . . . . . . . . .

Perceived Influence Level of Listed T.|. Group by Them-

selves O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

Perceptions of the Influential Role . . . . . . . . . .

Organizational Memberships of T.|. for Six Community
Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Formal Communication Patterns in the T.I. Group . . . .

Communications Sent and Received in T.I. Group (Formal
Level) C O O O O O 0 O O O O O O O C O O O O O O O O

Informal Communication Patterns in the T.I. Group . . .

Communications Sent and Received in T.I. Group (Infor-
ma] Level) D O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Written Communication Patterns in the T.|. Group. . . .
Formal Sub-Cliques in the T.I. Group. . . . . . . . . .
Informal Sub-Cliques in the T.|. Group. . . . . . . . .
Comparison of K.I. and Top Ten Communicators. . . . . .
Education and Age Distribution of the Influentials in

Three Cities 0 O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O 0

iv

Page

55

56

59
63

66

67

69
7O

75
79

8|
82

8L!-
86

90
9I
93

96

Table
I9.

20.

2].

22.

23.

Comparison of Business Representation Among K.I. as
Selected by T.l. and Ranked by Status as influen-
tial Policy Makers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comparison of Four Community Top Influential Groups by
'nStitUtionaI Affiliation. a o o o o o e o e o o o 0

Comparison of Eight Community Influence Systems by In-
stitutional Affiliation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comparison of Occupational Identities of Key Influen-
tials in Twelve Cities . . . . . . . . . .i. . . . .

Power Perceptions of Labor and San Jose T.I.

Page

98

99

I02

I03

IO7

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. Formal and Informal Communication Sub-Clique Groupings 88

vi

INTRODUCTION

There has always been much.discussion about the exercise of power
in the community. One school of thought says that power is vested in
the formal leadership of the community while the other rejects this in
favor of the position that views power as being held by a rather small
elite group that not only is at times outside the formal leadership,
but even sometimes is in control of that leadership. In I953 when
Floyd Hunter wrote about Regional City in his Community Power Struc-
Eggg,l it seemed tnat evndence showed that this latter point of view
was the most plausible. Ever since, social scientists have been test-
ing the general methodOIOgical procedures used by Hunter in studying
the power structure of other communities.

In writing this thesis, our primary purpose is to describe the
power structure as it exists in San Jose, Costa Rica, in an attempt to
add another study to the body of research in this area. To date cities
in the United States,2 England,3 and Mexico;l have been successfully
studied by various social and political scientists who have located and
described elitist groups.

First, we will present an historical frame of reference for the
study of power In San Jose. Our main interest will be to show some of
the reasons why a power structure comparable to many United States com-
munities can be expected. It will also be necessary to view the devel-
opment of the institutional sources of power in Costa Rica.

Second, we will consider the method used by Floyd Hunter and

others from a procedural and critical viewpoint. Our interest will be
I

to show what has been done to improve the original method along with
citing various studies that have used the reputational technique of
community power study.

In the last chapter, emphasis will be given to the results of the
study and conclusions will be drawn. Comparisons will then be made
with several other communities previously studied. Our purpose will
be to provide further analysis of the results.

It will be noted that throughout this study we have employed a
communication orientation thus analyzing the communication patterns of
the community influentials probably more than any study conducted to
the present time. We have been interested in this aspect because it
appears that group interaction has been a neglected variable in this
kind of research. In most studies attention is given to describing this
elite group from a professional or social point of view, but Its inter-
group communication patterns are more or less taken for granted. Yet,
many studies do mention that there is some degree of communication among
the members of the power structure. To this point, Hunter states that
". . . there must be channels of interaction open for decisions to flow
down, and for issues to rise, at times, from the underlying population."5
Yet, how much or what form this "interaction" takes usually remain un-
answered questions.

The existence of communication among a number of individuals is
tantamount to their being definable as a group. Because communication
is that mechanism by which interpersonal influence is exerted, the com-
munication behavior of an influential person is directly related to his
being influential. Without communication there would be no group norms,

no group goals, and what is more, no organized group action.6 This

III .[rlJfIII’IiIl‘IIII‘fIIII'l E. \ .III‘I.III|.II III 1 El IIII‘ (EIII‘I-lrlui {III}...- I]
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certainly should make this aspect of research valuable to a discussion
of community power.

This then brings us to a more complete statement of the twofold
purpose of this project: to locate and describe Qggh the power struc-
ture of the city of San JOSE, Costa Rica, and its inter-group communi-
cation behavior.

The selection of San Jose as the research site, was influenced by
the physical presence of the writer for an extended period of time
which facilitated the study. Furthermore, the only other studies con-
ducted in Latin America were those made along the United States-Mexican

7

border. We can understand more clearly the form and existence of
power structures if we are able to make cross-cultural comparisons.

For this reason there is great need that additional studies of power

be made in Latin America.

Another reason for the selection of San Jose is that as a national
capital it was desired to see if comparison would still be possible
realizing that the sources of institutional power might make for too
great a comparative disparity. In short, it seemed to the writer that
San Jose could supply us with some much-needed information if its power
structure were studied.

There is a more or less specialized vocabulary that lends itself
to a study such as this. To write without some operationally defined
point of view would be meaningless. The first of these words, of ne-
cessity, is "power.“ Hunter defines power as "a word used to describe
the acts of men going about the business of moving other men to act in

relation to themselves or in relation to organic or inorganic things."8

Before we can fully understand this definition further clarifications

i,

must be submitted. The word ”power" has unfortunate connotations in
popular usage that detract from its utility as a term for exact defini-

9

tion. Usually when we speak of power, we refer to the capacity that A
has to get 8 to do what he (A) wants him to do because A has sanctions
that he can inflict upon 8 such as physical force, loss of job, or
social destruction. This has caused us to look upon even the mildest
forms of personal influence as something unclean and undemocratic. Once
again, we must underline the completely descriptive nature of this
study. It is not our purpose to make value judgments concerning these
aspects of power.

Now before we accept or reject Hunter's definition, we must look
further at another concept: authority. Power and authority are not
synonomous terms. It is entirely possible for a person to have authori-
ty but lack power.'0 The mayor of a city is, because he is mayor, in a
position of authority. If, however, he lacks the power to enforce his
authority, he cannot be said to have power. Power studies are not con-
cerned with general degrees of authority but with the more crucial de-
grees of power that a person has. In brief, authority is that legal
right that a person has to command others; power is the capacity that
a person has to "move others."

"Power" and "influence" as they will be used in the context of
this paper will be mutually inclusive terms which will characterize the
people in the power structure. The power structure will refer to the
larger group of influentials within the framework of the community. It
is the organization of the power complex even though it be composed of
quite diverse elements or even small groups, or cliques. The group of

persons who form this structure and who at the same time have power,

will be termed influentials or elite. In short, the "men" who move
other men, as Hunter describes them in his definition, refers to the in-
fluentials or elite - those whose "act" is power and who move in the en-
vironment of the power organization or structure. For these reasons,
then, Hunter's position will be basically accepted in the general dis-
cussion of power.

The word "communication” will refer to the process of interaction
that takes place among the members of the power structure and will be
discussed from the standpoint of two dimensions of form: face-to-face
and written communication. The first of these will be sub-divided into
two categories: formal and informal communication. Formal communica-
tions are those which refer to the face-to-face contacts that influen-
tials have in the framework of their institutions. They serve on
committees, on boards of directors, and they work with each other.

These communications, because they take place in structures, organiza-
tional systems, and the like, are formal in nature. On the other hand,
two influentials not connected with the same institution must needs com-
municate on a different level and this would be informal in nature. For
this reason, then, informal communications are those which take place
outside of the framework of particular institutions and are more direct-
ed toward the level of good friendship. Such a distinction was made
between the formal and informal levels of communication because more

and more we are realizing that much community planning and decision-
making actually takes place in an informal environment.

We have been discussing face-to-face communications. We can also
talk about written communications which take place in a group. Written

communications refer to those, which being either formal or informal,

take the form of a letter or memorandum. In describing the communica-
tion behavior of a person with another person it is necessary to know
the degree of face-to-face contacts he has and also how many written
communications convey the messages that are desired to make for a flow
of communication between the two. The same sort of consideration is
necessary for a power structure.

Other concepts which will be used in the remainder of the discus-
sion of San Jose power structure will be defined in the context of the
study. We have not herein presented an exhaustive list of all such
power-oriented words; what we have attempted to do is to define only
those words which are basic to an elemental understanding of a power

study such as this.

I.

3.

5.

7.

9.

I0.

NOTES
INTRODUCTION

Floyd Hunter, CommunityPower Structure, (Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, I953).

For a rather complete bibliography other than that included with
this thesis, see: Robert O. Schulze and Leonard U. Blumberg,

"The Determination of Local Power Elites," The American Journal of
Sociology, 63,No. 3 (November, l957), 290.

Delbert C. Miller, "Industry and Community Power Structure: A Com-
parative Study of an American and an English City,“ American Socio-
logical Review, 23, No. l (February, I958), 9-l5.

William V. D'Antonio and Others, "Institutional and Occupational
Representation in Eleven Community Influence Systems," American
Sociological Review, 26, No. 3 (June, I959), #40-946; William H.
Form and William V. D'Antonio, "Integration and Cleavage Among
Community Influentials in TWo Border Cities," American Sociological
Review, 24, No. 6 (December, I959), BOA-8IA; Orrin E. Klapp and

L. Vincent Padgett, "Power Structure and Decision-Making in a Mexi-
can Border City," The American Journal of Sociology, 65, No. A
(January, I960), ADO-#06; William V. D'Antonio and Eugene C. Erick-
son, "The Reputational Technique as a Measure of Community Power:
an Evaluation Based on Comparative and Longitudinal Studies,"
American Sociological Review, 27, No. 3 (June, I962), 362-376.

Hunter, IO7.

Dorin Cartwright, "Power: A Neglected Variable in Social Psychol-
Ogy," from Dorin Cartwright, Studies in Social Psychology

(Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, I959), l-l3.

These were the cities of Tijuana and C. Juarez. See note A above.
Hunter, 2.

Cartwright, I83-220.

See Hunter, Chapter 6.

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY

OF POWER IN SAN JOSE, COSTA RICAI

The Larger Context

The legend states that when ChristOpher Columbus set foot on the
Atlantic shore of Costa Rica on his fourth and last voyage to the New
WOrld in September, l502, he expected to find so much wealth that he
called the new land "Costa Rica" (Rich Coast).2 It is doubtful that
the legend is true, but if Columbus had known what scarcity of wealth
his new-found land possessed, no doubt he would have called it "Costa
Pobre" (Poor Coast).3 When the Spaniards arrived in the l6th century,
the great supply of gold was not to be found anywhere. Moreover, the
Indian pOpulation was small in comparison to other Spanish dominated
lands in the hemisphere. Instead of being easily taken over, the
tribes of Indians were somewhat scattered, and because of this they
were not as easily subdued as others had been.h Another distinction of
the country was that there were no natural lines of communication be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts due to the mountainous ter-
rain.5

These conditions were to make the settlement and devel0pment of
Costa Rica different from any other Latin American country. In Mexico,
Cortez found Indians and gold; in Perd, Pizarro also had similar
fortune.6 So the story goes for almost every Latin American country.

Costa Rica is one of the exceptions. With the lack of great stores

8

9

of Indians to place in “encomiendas” (commanderies) for use as a slave
labor force, or to christianize, and with the dearth of rich gold and
silver deposits coupled with the problem of communication, settlement
in Costa Rica had to be slow and had to express itself in the form of
more or less isolated poor communities. Recognition of these factors
is important in order to establish a basis for a sociological study of
the national capital of Costa Rica, San Jose.

Because of these factors and thus unlike any of her neighbors,
Costa Rica never developed the tradition of a firmly entrenched landed
aristocracy or a powerful elite which dominated the life of the country,
which received the larger share of the benefits of the economy, and
which, supported by a sizeable army, manipulated the nation's political
scene.7 Rather the country was settled and p0pulated by Spanish ex-
adventurers who reverted to their farming background and who were
forced by their environment to live with few resources under very mini-
mum conditions much like those of the early colonists of the United
States.8

The great national armed forces that exist and at times rise to
power in other Latin American countries have never existed in Costa
Rica, a country that didn't even have to raise such an army for Its
independence from Spain which came in l82l.9 Even to the present day,
Costa Rica does not have an army per se.

Until l838, Costa Rica was part of the Central American Federation.
In that year It withdrew from the Federation for a time. The situation
of the country after this second independence remained vague until I848
when President Jose Maria Castro concluded the separation thus making

Costa Rica an independent republic.ll The period until i889 was marked

ID

by intermittent benevolent dictators and weak presidents. However, with
some exceptions, the dictator that has historically wielded the poll-
tical power in many Central and South American countries did not emerge.
Rather there came a tradition of citizen independence which eventually
formed the democratic tradition that is maintained today in Costa Rica.
Since l889, except for two brief periods in l9l7 to l9l9 and again in
l9h8 for a ten month period, Costa Rica has Operated as a democracy.‘2
This concept has become a part of the way of thinking and self-rule
among the Costa Rican citizens.

Then if it is not socially, politically, and economically unique,
at least Costa Rica is different from other countries in Latin America.
Where it would be possible to predict with a certain degree of accuracy
the composition of the power elite in other countries or capital cities
in Latin America on the basis of their more typical colonial back-
grounds, it is not so easy to make the same obvious predictions about
Costa Rica or its capital. In order to begin such an analysis, it be-
comes necessary to look more closely at the history of the country em-
phasizing its social and economic as well as Its political aspects.

To avoid the disease-ridden coastal regions, early Spanish settlers
made their homes in the central highland area.‘3 The people who began
to colonize the Meseta Central in l56l were forced to farm and build
homes, not to look for "El Dorado" and return to Spain. They were too
poor for this. There was no colonial aristocracy or those who could
claim special prestige due to status or position among this relatively
small group. As a result of these unusual conditions, settlement was
slow. Four cities were eventually established in this area: Cartago

in l56h, San Jose in I736, Alajuela in I790, and a little later,

ll

Heredia.M

In l823 Cartago, which was then the governmental seat for the Costa
Rican nation, was partially destroyed by an eruption of the nearby vol-
cano, Iraza.'5 The capital was then moved to San Jose where it has re-
mained ever since, with the exception of a short period when, due to the
prideful and competitive spirit of the citizens, the capital rotated
among the four Meseta Central cities.I

The climate of San Jose is more agreeable than that of the other
three cities, and it is somewhat protected from the heavy rains from the
East by the high volcanoes. It is difficult to say to what extent this
fact influenced San José's becoming the capital, but it remains that two
years after Central America claimed its independence from Spain, it

17

did. deay San Jose is the largest city in the country with about

lh4,000 inhabitants while the other three centralized cities of Cartago,
Alajuela, and Heredia have about I7,000 each.‘8

While the disappointed "conquerors" of Costa Rica found little or
no gold, it was the first Central American country to plant coffee

which was introduced by the last Spanish governor, Tomas de Acostal9

20 The first small shipments were made to Chile. Around

around I800.

l8h0 came the first exports of coffee to Europe and the coffee expor-

ters began to earn greater sums of money. Needless to say, the intro-

duction of coffee created an economic and social revolution. The

economy was changed from its simple subsistence farming base to one

built on international export, something totally new for the country.21
Now there was a cause for this occurrence. When independence

came, the government found itself with the necessity of creating some

kind of money crop, a product to export and tax. Prescon James reports

12

that Costa Rica was again the first country in Central America to
realize the value of coffee production.22 It was decided that coffee
would be that crop upon which the government would bank its future.
Free land was given by the government to anyone who would agree to set
out coffee trees.23 Transportation routes were begun to both the
Atlantic and Pacific coastszu and, as a result, in the l9th century
coffee became the chief export, and with the exception of a few years
when banana production exceeded, it has continued to be the mainstay
of Costa Rica's economy.25

Costa Rica began again. Coffee had brought a new type of life.

From money received from coffee, the government could support itself

and build roads and schools. Increased per capita income brought the
people a desire for more of the comforts of life. Yet it must be re-
membered that as valuable as coffee was to the Costa Rican economy, it
could not mean the same benefits for everyone. Some became very wealthy,
others received increased annual incomes; others remained without
material benefit.

Generally speaking, the size of farm meant the difference between
being a coffee farmer and a coffee exporter. The latter group, receiv-
ing most of the economic benefits from coffee, soon formed a wealthy
elite. These rich coffee owners had their own well-defined interests
and claimed their rights to politically direct the affairs of state.
During the first 30 years of Costa Rican independence, the political
game was played by a few families most of whom got a fairly generous
share of the spoils of office.26

However, when Tomas Guardia, the dominant politician of the

period from l870 to l882, came to power, a drastic change was wrought.

13

He was the first of the series of strong individualistic personalities
around whom the political life of the country has tended to revolve.
Guardia was not connected with the former ruling family oligarchy.
Moreover, he resented the monopoly that a few families had over the
social, political, and economic life of the pe0ple. To put an end to
their power, he started to confiscate the property of various members
of the great family elite and even deported those who criticized what
he was doing.27 As a result of his increased power, the former power
elite of the l9th century was broken up and political opportunity be-
came more general.28 From the time of Guardia, the political power of
the country has tended to center around a person rather than a family.
This is not to say that wealthy families do not exist or that they are
not powerful. It does imply, however, that the power of those inter-
ests was drastically reduced, especially in the political Sphere.2

By I902, 20 years after the death of Tomas Guardia, foundations
were laid for a fair approach to republican government. The public
school system offering free and compulsory education was created. The
gold standard of currency was adopted, and agriculture and commerce
aided and improved.30 But the greatest influence that came out of this
period was that which centered itself around the developing middle
class. With this basic element of the population was created a reassur-
ing insistence upon orderly government.

Until the middle of the l9th century, there were substantially no
class distinctions to be found in this country composed of small prOp-
erty owners. But as we have said, coffee created an "elite" composed of
coffee exporters. It was also responsible for creating the middle class

of small property owners or farmers, and the lower class made up of

I I\.iII\{.I|\.II (1 ([{i [[{rlnlw [«rf|\.{rl\ll I r

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3l

workers or peons. The low class was the last to form and it was
brought about when the coffee exporter, able to afford the expensive
processing equipment necessary for the production of coffeefor expor-
tation, demanded that the small farmer pay for having his coffee pro-
cessed for market. Fluctuations in the world market for coffee from
time to time helped create economic binds on the small farmer who was
often forced to mortgage or to lose his farm. As a result, the small
farmer of the early l9th century was replaced by larger units capable
of buying small landholdings in order to make larger ones. The process
continues taday.

This, however, is a rather slow process in individualistic Costa
Rica. Preston James reports that coffee production in Costa Rica on
a per acre basis is still low. Only Nicaragua in Central America pro-
duces less per acre. The reason for this, he states, is that most of
the coffee plantations are owned by small farmers. In spite of the
consolidation process that is taking place, still 56 per cent of the
farmers own less than l,OOO trees each while 5 per cent of the coffee
planters own more than half of all the coffee trees. From this small
number of large-scale farmers comes most of the coffee output.32

By the end of the l9th century, large commercial importers had
joined the coffee exporter elite. The middle class had grown to in-
clude small businessmen, professionals, and public servants, and the
low class was composed of the unskilled laborer.33 These class dis-
tinctions are more or less consistent with those groups found in the
urban areas of Costa Rica in the present day. In the rural areas of

BA

the country, no such distinctions exist. These social groupings

are found in the urban areas only, and more specifically in the cities

l ‘ l 'I
Il'Lll’lrI‘lt fir-Ii

I‘f Illir 1‘: ( I?lli\.’

IS

of San Jose, Alajuela, Cartago, and Heredia, which, with the exception
of Cartago, are surrounded by large coffee plantations.35

Now it should be remembered that these three social classes that
have been discussed above are primarily gggj§1_classes. It should not
be thOUght that the high class is equal to the power structure of the
country or city. At times, it is true, such a social ranking serves
as a source for power potential. Neither should it be thought that
these three classes are so well-ordered that each occupies a neat niche
and that each is mutually exclusive of the others. We do not imply
that there is no interaction that takes place freely among them. In
other words, we find it impossible to speak of a Costa Rican caste
system. This is far from the case.

To have to work as others work does not seem to disturb the average
Costa Rican citizen. He enjoys owning his small independent farm and
sees the same right of ownership granted to others. This sense of
proprietorship has had an important influence on the democratic tra-
dition of the pe0ple and the concept of the small farmer owning his
land and producing for his own needs has to some extent hindered and
at best slowed the development of such strictly definable class lines.

This then is the historical setting for the study of general com-
munity influence in the capital city. It now remains to create a

frame of reference for the comments that will later be directed to

San Jose in a more specific manner.
The Research Site

It is not an overstatement to say that everything in the country

radiates from San Jose. It is as the hub of a wheel from which the

l6

spokes, represented by the social, economic, business, governmental,
religious, educational, and cultural institutions, go out to influence
the rest of the nation.

From an economic point of view, San José is the chief trading
center for the country's all-important coffee crOp. It is the provin-
cial center for the Province of San Jose which covers l,729 square
miles and is the principal coffee-growing region in Costa Rica having

almost half of all the coffee trees.36

The importance of this crop
cannot be over-stressed, especially since it had more than its share to
do with making San Jose the national capital. When the rest of Costa
Rica was suffering from impoverishment, the municipal government in
San Jose started giving free land to farmers who would plant coffee
trees. The effect of this far-sighted policy can be seen today.37

To date, manufacturing and industry are not extensive either in
the capital city or in the remainder of the country. There are shoe,
furniture, rubber, textile, and soap factories which supply local needs.
There is considerable dairy farming and a large-scale cooperative dairy
provides above average dairy products for the country.38

The city is served by national and international airlines and is
connected to both coastal ports by two electric railroads which have
their terminals in San Jose. This can be said for no other city in the
country. For transportation north and south, there is the Inter-
American Highway which passes through San José.

This city is also the seat of national government which is strong-
ly centralized. Considerable authority is given to the President who

serves a four year term and cannot succeed himself in office. There

is a cabinet of nine members appointed by the President and a unicameral

I7

congress with #5 "diputados" or congressmen.

The capital can also be called the religious center of the country.
Large Roman Catholic cathedrals, schools, seminaries, and convents can
be found in abundance in the city and its immediate outlying area. The
Roman Church is "strong and vital" in Costa Rica.39 Evidence of this
can be seen on Sundays when the people go to church in force. women
appear to be especially influenced by the church, while the men, in
general, do not share their interest. However, in Costa Rica the Roman
Church does have an influence upon the majority of the peOple.

Other institutions that should be mentioned in a discussion of the
national capital are the University of Costa Rica, the College of Law-
yers, the College of Physicians, the nationalized bank system, the
various clubs and voluntary organizations, and the economic organs that
work to better the conditions of certain interests, i.e. coffee.

There are a few small labor unions, but they are relatively inactive
and unorganized.

As a city in Costa Rica, San Jose stands alone among all the other
cities. it is the distributive center for the rest of the country.

A most complete assortment of stores line the principal streets and
avenues. Of the almost #5 radio stations in the country, nearly 30
are located in San Jose.“0 The city is also served by five daily news-
papers. Its automobiles and busses, the few factories, and the usual
hum of people in the process of business give San Jose the appearance
of a modern city quite comparable to many found in the United States.

However, because it is the center of activity for the country, the
seat of government, the institutional melting pot, and the concentra-

tion of greatest population density, San Jose has problems as any city

I l ‘ III ’II I III
I II. I [I 'IIIIIiIl .
III‘ {I

l8

its size and description. It is a city in which decisions are made that

effect not only the community per se, but also the entire country.

The question can now lOQically be asked about what people make these

decisions. The location and characterization of these people is the

end to which the remainder of this paper is directed.

From this very brief background, several points should be stressed

because of their particular bearing on following comments. These will

be presented by way of summary.

.2.

3.

5.

Costa Rica evolved a democratic tradition instead of
oligarchy and dictatorship. It is thus more like the
United States than most Latin American countries.
Political figures rise to prominence more on the basis
of their individualistic characteristics than from a
prominent family background.

The economy of Costa Rica depends totally upon coffee
which was responsible for changing many of the earlier
traditions of the country. But when the world market
price for coffee declines, the country suffers economi-
cally. The inverse is also true.

Since I920, the middle class characterized as small
property owners, professionals, public servants, and
small businessmen has emerged.

San Jose is the center of national life from which the
directing institutions of the nation Operate.

San Jose is a modern community such as many found in the

United States with the necessity of operating as a com-

munity with leaders and followers.

IO.

ll.
I2.

I3.

NOTES

CHAPTER I

It is not the purpose of this chapter to present an all-inclusive
history of the country of Costa Rica or of its capital city,

San José. Because of the primary aim of this thesis, our interest
is to view the bases from history that tend to define or locate
the sources of present day power.

Albert OrdOhez ArgUello, ed., "Resefia HistOrica," El Libro de Oro
de Costa Rica (Costa Rica: Ediciones de Intercambio Integral
Centroamericanos, I960), 5.

Preston E. James, Latin America (New York: The Odyssey Press,

-I959). 709-

Carlos Monge Alfaro, Historia de Costa Rica (San José: Imprenta
Trejos Hnos., I962), l5-I6.

Eugenio Rodriguez Vega, Apuntes para una Sociologia Costarricense,
tesis presentada a la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de

Costa Rica (San JOSé: SecciOn Tesis de Grado y Ensayos, I953),
I7-I9.

See: William H. Prescott, The Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest
of Peru originally published in I847, various editions.

James, 7lO.

Monge Alfaro, IO8-ll2.

James, 72h.

Although it is permitted a standing army of 500, Costa Rica tech-
nically speaking has none. In I823 the country signed a treaty
with the other Central American republics which granted this
right. A rather effective army could be raised, however, if the
Civil Guard, the Traffic Division, and the Revenue Corps were
united with various volunteer groups that would number well over
500 men. "Costa Rica," Collier's EncngOpedia, 6 (I958), 52.
Monge Alfaro, I7h-I78.

James , 72h-7250

Monge Alfaro, 8i.

)9

iIlIllIllllll-l‘rll‘f‘I-I'I'l

lh.

IS.
l6.

l7.

l8.
I9.

20.

21.
22.
23.
2h.
25.
26.

27.
28.
29.
30.
BI.
32.
33.
3h.

35-

20

James, 7]].

"San JOSE," Collier's Encyglopedia, l7 (I958), 326.

Manuel de JesOs JimEnez discusses “La Ley de la Ambulancia" in his
novel of Costa Rica; see his chapter on "La Ambulancia" in Paginas
Escogidas (San JOSE: El Ministerio de EducaciOn POblica, l959).

Costa Rica was part of the captain-generalcy of Guatemala until
l82l.

OrdOfiez ArgUeIlo, A.

Rodriguez Vega, 99.

Preston James gives I797 as the date and Carlos Monge Alfaro pre-
sents l80h. The fact remains that it was around this time that
coffee was introduced.

Rodriguez Vega, 99.

Jams. 7‘ 1-712.

lbid.

 

Monge Alfaro, 230.
James, 7l5.

Mary W. Williams, Ruhl J. Bartlett and Russell E. Miller, 139
Pe0ple and Politics of Latin America (New York: Ginn and Co.,

1955). 428.

Monge Alfaro, 207-2l0.

Williams, #30.

Monge Alfaro, 206.

Williams, #30.

Rodriguez Vega, th-ll9.

James, 7ll+.

Rodriguez Vega, IOh-ll9.

This point Is made eSpecially clear in table 3 found in Charles P.
Loomis and Others, Turrlalba (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press,
I953), Table 3, p. 60. The authors suggest the social classes as

they possibly are in San JOSE and in three rural centers.

Rodriguez Vega, th-ll9.

36.
37.
38.
39.

no.

21

"San JOSE", Collier's Encyclggedia, l7, pp. 326-327.
Monge Alfaro, 20I-203.
James, 711+.

W. Stanley Rycroft, Religion and Faith in Latin America (Phila-
delphia: The Westminster Press, I958), I33.

This figure is based on a general listing; "Lista de Radiodifuso-
ras Onda Larga - RepOblica de Costa Rica," which was published by
the Department of Cultural Extension of the Ministry of Public Edu-
cation in San JOSE, August 23, I962. The list omits several of

the radio stations in the city, and of this reason only general
figures can be given in the text.

CHAPTER II

METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES FOR THE STUDY

OF POWER IN SAN JOSE
Power and Procedures

From a mere scan of world history, there can be little doubt that
power as we have heretofore defined it exists and that many of the
cause and effect relationships of history are grounded in power - its
meaning and use. Thomas Paine's COmmon Sense helped turn the tide Of
history in proclaiming that England was unfair in the manner in which
it was exercising power.I The Federalist Papers dealt with the use of
power and provided a framework for controlling the development of fac-
tions that would work together to further their own interests at the
expense of the national welfare.

The exercise of power has influenced history to such an extent
that we might even say that it 13 history. We most often hear about
the part that the use of power has had in the creation, rise, and fall
of governments, but it is also apparent that at times power develops
outside of standard political situations or institutions. We can say
that one of the reasons that Spain lost control or power in the New
World in the l9th century was because she was geOgraphically too far
away to communicate her power to her colonies. Yet the fact is that
the colonies In the course of time developed more power than the
mother country. The same is true of what happened when the thirteen

North American colonies broke away from England. Even on a much

22

23

further removed basis, power often develops inside as well as outside
of the fixed boundaries of political institutions. This, of course, is
true of the average community in which institutional boundaries are ir-
regular and in which such boundaries fluctuate from time to time. Yet
community life is organized life and this signifies that legitimized
power is expressed to some, if not to a considerable extent.

Max Weber has furnished us with much insight into the bases on
which this power may be grounded, yet at the same time be quite legiti-
mate or morally acceptable. In other words, Weber spoke not of the
power that can be found when A threatens B with absolute demise if A's
intentions are not followed. Instead, he presented three ways in which
legitimate power can be established.3 The first is charismatic power.
The person with this basis of power appears to possess certain almost
extrahuman traits which cause others to listen and act even though they
might be doing it against their own desires. This is the characteris-
tic that iS possessed by the "natural born leader.“

The second basis of power is that of legal enactment or prescrip-
tion of power such as that which is granted to the government or to a
particular power structure by the rest of the country or community.

The last basis upon which Weber legitimized power is that of tradition.
Traditional power may be that which is assigned to a particular role
or position. The editor of a newspaper may not be influential outside
of the role of being an editor.

Certainly there are combinations of the above three bases of
power. It is difficult to find such completely well-defined power
figures in a community today. It can also be stated that at times

power is legitimized more because of the mores of the community than

i I I I III I I

i I I I n.
I'll. [II I

29

of the moral or ethical implications which it has. But aside from all
of the possible power combinations of which we could write, it never-
theless remains that most important in the description of Weber's
bases is the fact that power is a possession of some persons and that
it can be exercised in the human community.

Realizing then that much of history has been directed by power
complexes and that community existence requires that power be exercised,
It then becomes necessary to know how decisions are made, and more-
over, who makes them.

There has been a renewed interest during the past ten years in
finding the answers to these important questions among sociologists who
are now experimenting with ways of locating and characterizing the
power structures of communities. Until the time of Floyd Hunter's
study of Regional City, much of the data available on community struc-
ture was impressionistic or based on calculated hunch.4 Hunter's study
was important because it employed a methodology based on sociological
theory in studying power as resident in the power complex of the com-
munity. His method is now relatively common among sociologists-and
political scientists who have used it as a standard procedure in
attempting to answer the above questions.

Very simply, Hunter went to a certain number of people who knew the
community from first-hand experience. These people had special know-
ledge of at least one institutional area of the total community that
he was studying. Each was presented with a list of people who were
prominent either as nominal or active leaders of the community in

business, government, civic associations, and/or social activities.5

25

From these lists containing more than I75 names of people who were pre-
sumed to have power in community affairs, a basic list of ho names was
derived based on the designations made by Hunter's panel of "judges."
Interviews were then arranged with each of the ho influentials in
which the general findings were verified and further data was col-
lected on the amount and type of power relationships that took place
among the members of the group.

Of the "Top #0" that Hunter located, ll directed large commercial
establishments, 6 were directors of banks or investment enterprises,

6 were professionals (5 lawyers, l dentist), 5 had major industrial
responsibility, h were government officials, 2 were labor leaders, and
5 had no offices or businesses which they directed. Hunter named this
last group "leisure personnel."6

It is interesting to note that from this group, the major economic
interests of the community were more fully represented. In addition,
Hunter found that there was interaction among the power figures as they
worked with each other in directing community projects.7 He further
stated that this group of #0 was structured into several cliques or
"crowds." Certain clique members formed the policy-making group and
the rest generally carried out the policy.

From his findings, it can be readily seen that the formal commun-
ity leader is not always entirely free to make community-wide decisions,
but neither is he entirely powerless. It will be granted that such
formal leadership has authority, but that at times there exists in the
community a type of non-official power. It will be remembered in

reading Hunter's book, that if the issue required it, the governor

26

would come to ask advice of Mr. Treat rather than being the one of whom
advice would be asked.8 The power of which Hunter speaks is legiti-
mized in part, not through legal or formal authority, but through the
mores of the community.9

Charles P. Loomis, William H. Form, Eugene C. Erickson, and
William V. D'Antonio, with others, have used a slightly modified ap-
roach in locating the power structure than that used by Hunter. In-
stead of presenting a pre-arranged list to a panel of judges, they
arranged informal interviews with a number of "knowledgeables," people
such as the judges of Hunter who knew the community under study. From
these knowledgeables, names were Obtained and then lists were drawn up
of the people receiving more than a certain number of "votes." The im-
portant difference between this method and the one employed in Communi-
ty Power Structure was that no names were presented to the preliminary
panel of knowledgeables. It is rather difficult to say specifically
what difference this change has made in the general efficacy of the
method, but it is certain that it has helped to control one of the var-
iables: premature closure due to the presentation of a list as frame
of reference. Aside from this change, the methodology remains essen-
tially the same from study to study.

By way of summary, then, we can say that the reputational tech-
nique is the following:

I. A research site is selected that tends to satisfy the

purposes of the study. The site is studied until a
certain familiarity is attained with its general insti-

tutional and economic characteristics.

3e

50

27

Persons who are informed, yet not necessarily influen-
tials, are selected for informal interviews. These
knowledgeables are usually representative of the
directing institutions of the community, e.g. bankers,
professionals, industrialists, politicians, and the like.
These knowledgeables are asked to name the most influen-
tial power figures in the community.

Those persons whose names appear above a certain order

of frequency in the preliminary interviews with the
knowledgeables are selected as top influentials (T.I.).lo
Interviews of a more formal, structured nature are held
with the tOp influentials at which time more information
along the specific lines of the study is requested.

Many studies introduce a kind of check in that these
persons, too, are given the same opportunity as was
given to the knowledgeables to name other power peOple
with or without the benefit of pre-arranged lists.
Conclusions are drawn from the findings and key influen-
tials (K.I.), the top ten or so of the T.I. group, are
named after final rankings are made based on the infor-

mation received from the second series of interviews.

There are several trends in this kind of research which are help-

ing to clarify the method and its uses. One is that researchers are
beginning to see the value of making cross-community comparisons.
They are desirous of knowing if there is a sharing of values and
perspectives which may apply to communities in general. Delbert C.

Miller has demonstrated the value in using a comparative method

28

of community study to test even simple hypotheses about power struc-
tures. For his test of the prOposition that businessmen exert pre-
dominant influence in community decision-making, he selected an
American and an English city with similar economic structures and com-
pared his findings with Hunter's for Regional City.ll Of special
interest here is the fact that he compared two United States communi-
ties.

Another aspect of Miller's study reveals the other trend in recent
community research employing the reputational method. There has been
increased interest in studying and comparing the decision-makers in
cross-cultural situations. D'Antonio, Form, Loomis, and Erickson have
studied eleven influence systems. Using Miller's Pacific and English
cities and Hunter's Regional City, they added the results of six
southwestern United States cities and two Mexican border cities. The
same basic methodology was used in each circumstance. Their findings-
even in this cross-cultural setting - generally support Miller's
hypothesis that "businessmen tend to be the most highly represented
among the top and key influentials.“2 However, the role of govern-
ment In the community appears to be the greatest variable in whether
or not business tends to share its high degree of representation.

In other words, Miller found that while Regional and Pacific
cities had a greater representation Of business interests in their
respective power structures, the hypothesis had to be qualified for
English City, which had a broader representation of other institu-
tional sectors of community life than the other communities being
compared.‘3 The two main factors responsible for this shift,

according to Miller, were the differences in occupational prestige

29

between the United States and England and the particular structure of
the city government in English City which was so designed as to serve
as the "major arena of community decision.”M D'Antonio, Form,

Loomis, and Erickson found a similar occurrence in C. Juarez, Mexico,
in which government almost equalled the representation of business.
This was due to the fact that the city is one of the centers of the
political party of Mexico.‘5 These findings lead us to the conclusion
that when government has a greater community voice either in that it is
more representational of the main sectors of community life as Miller
prOposes, or that it serves as an important political base, it is prob-
able that the most influential group will include an almost equal
representation of governmental leaders to business leaders. We will
have cause to return to this point at a later time.

Orrin E. Klapp and L. Vincent Padgett also found that business in-
terests were more highly represented in the Mexican border city of
Tijuana in which they conducted a study.‘6 They used the reputational
method developed by Floyd Hunter and modified by Form, Loomis, and
others. Klapp and Padgett interviewed 30 knowledgeables who were
asked to name the "ten most influential peOple" in the entire community.
Later they listed those persons receiving three or more "votes" and ar-
ranged interviews with them. Those who met this criteria were con-
sidered as top influentials.

The community institutions that were most representational of the
power figures in Tijuana were business (commerce and industry), govern-
ment, communications (newspapers, radio, television), political
parties, and labor. Even though the majority of T.I. were businessmen,

the researchers were unable to report that these interests "ran the

3O

town" because those in political positions, which businessmen seldom
attain, have connections with "outside sources of power such as the
national high command of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional,
the dominant political party of Mexico)."'7 Once again relatively
strong influence from the governmental sector can be seen.

While all of these studies seem to have been concerned with the
representation or voice of various segments of the larger community,
to our knowledge, Hunter has been the most vocal on the types of inter-
actions or communications that take place among members of the influen-
tial group. As has been said, Hunter found that cliques existed in
Regional City. He based his findings primarily on reports from some
of the T.I. themselves. The cliques of which Hunter spoke, were groups
of men that tended to cluster around a central figure. These cliques
or "crowds" as they were called in Regional City terminology, "pretty
well make the big decisions."l8 From the reports given by other top
influentials, he also observed that there were some independent persons
who could move from clique to clique as a kind of intermediary. These
persons were not in the specialized confines of any one particular
"crowd."l9

Of the other studies cited above, only Klapp and Padgett appear
to be primarily concerned with the interaction that takes place in
power complexes. In Tijuana they reported a generally negative response
to the question: “Is there a crowd who make most of the big deci-
sions?"20 Using the same method as Hunter, they were able to locate
a lesser clique of businessmen, however, who acted to Spearhead projects
but who were not able to obtain enough support from the other top in-

fluentials in order to achieve their goals.21

3l

Klapp and Padgett also report that every top influential has at
least "one strong personal tie with some other T.I. in Tijuana."22 This
finding was based on certain terms such as "muy amigo mfo" (a very good
friend) and "compadre" (godfather, or extremely good friend) which were
used by top influentials in describing their contacts with others on
the list.

Nevertheless, it must be added that both Hunter and Klapp and Pad-
gett have based their findings on casual reports made by informants.
None has been strongly concerned with the degree of interaction that
takes place in the power groupings within the power structure. Ac-
tually, investigation of the flow of communication would be one way of
locating the cliques within the power structure.

It can be concluded from the research already published on com-
munity power that no study has shown the existence of a strictly de-
fined monolithic or hierarchic structure. Hunter's data appears to
come the closest to supporting the model of a "pyramid of power" or a -
"kingmaker's clique" that tends to run the city. However, even Hunter
states that ". . .I doubt seriously that power forms a single pyramid
with any nIOEty in a community the size of Regional City." He contin-
ues by saying that it is more relevant to talk about the "pyramids
of power" that run the city than to talk of a single "pyramid."23

The above studies are not exhaustive of the research that has been
done on community power structure. They are representative and are
presented in the present discussion because of the particular bearing
that they have on the study under consideration. More information will
be included later when, after presenting an evaluation of the repu-

tational method, the method outline for San JOSE, and the results,

32

comparisons are made among the cities for which data is currently
available and thusly including the capital city of San JOSE, Costa Rica.
But before general methodological procedures are analyzed, some
of the more basic questions on which the reputational method is
founded Should be answered. The first of these deals with the actual
existence of an elite in the average community. Even prior to Hunter's
study, the Lynds In Middletown in Transition discussed such a group.24
Later C. Wright Mills spoke about the "white collar worker,"25 and In
I959 was compelled to write about The Power Elite in North American
society.26 It is then not difficult to accept the fact that previous
writers have acknowledged the existence of such a group. However, the
basis of such an awareness, which was discussed earlier, as will be
remembered, goes further back into a consideration of the patterns
of history. In Short, as Schulze and Blumberg have written, “one can
acknowledge that all persons and units in the community exercise cer-
tain measures of influence and control without rejecting the proposi-
tion that some can mobilize such considerable resources - organiza-
tional, economic, psychOIOgical - that they have relatively most
power over crucial community decisions and actions."27
We can then begin by assuming the general existence of power
structures in societies and communities. This, then, leads us to the
question which follows and which is, in reality, a problem of defini-
tion: What is the power structure? Nelson W. Polsby, in his study
based on New Haven, wrote that ". . .if leaders on issue A turned
out to be the same as leaders on issue B and on issue C, then the
power structure of New Haven would be identified."28 On the issues

that he studied in New Haven, there was little overlap. (Out of a

33

possible overlap of l3l, there was an actual overlap of 2, or l.5 per
cent.) This finding led him to say that "in none of the three issue
areas could we detect the faintest hint of what Hunter described for
Regional City, the Lynds for Middletown, and Warner for Jonesville -
namely, the more or less covert determination of community policies by
a particularly homogeneous economic and social elite."29

If it is correct to assume, as Dahl States,30 that a group may
have a high potential for control (power) and a low potential for
unity, then Polsby's definition of the power structure either seems to
be faulty, or New Haven is not a typical city. Another possibility
might be that the reputational method tends to reveal those people with
a high potential for control rather than those people who necessarily
have the unity to exercise their power. In other words, we might be
obtaining data that reveals the general power that a person possesses
rather than finding those people who actually exercise their power
across issue areas.‘

For our purposes, we prefer to look upon the power structure,
power, and the exercise of power as an aspect of the individual being
a part of, or possessing it. Many times the crucial point of a com-
munity decision rests on whether or not a particular decision-maker
will participate. It is not unreasonable to assume that a power person
will withdraw from those issue areas in which he has little or no in-
terest or to which he is flatly opposed. (This can sometimes Operate
as a "veto.") It must be granted, then, that power leaders have the
power to participate and to exercise their influence in projects which
they are Interested or to which they feel compelled to respond. This

leads us to the belief that a mere study of issues is faulty in that

3h

it tends to assign the "power" to the issues involved. The elite then
are forced to emerge because of the issue, not because they chose to
exercise their power in resolving the issue. As Hunter suggests, we
cannot assume that power can be so neatly delineated in a large commun-
Ity.

By negation, then, we have arrived at a workable definition of the
community power structure. While it is not solely definable in terms
of issues, the power structure is that complex which, composed of
people with the potential for power, is capable of the unity necessary
to exercise its power to bring about important decisional changes in
the community.

The last of the basic questions confronting a preliminary view of
the method is that which focuses upon the method itself. How are
leaders to be identified? This is a particularly perplexing question
because the environment Of leadership is as important to methodology
as it is to the definition of such leadership. Peter H. Rossi has pre-
sented in concise form three approaches to the problem of identifying
decision-makers. These are: I. the decision-maker approach; 2. the
partisan approach; 3. the process approach.31 A brief description of
each will be presented.

The decision-maker approach is that used by W. Lloyd Warner in
his Yankee City.32 This type of research locates types of decision-
makers, i.e., the mayor, and denotes certain of their characteristics.
These are then compared with some sort of reference population. "The
characteristics studied," reports Rossi, "may range from. . .age, oc-

cupation, and education to the more complex attitudinal data such as

are supplied in detailed interviews." This approach might well be

35

called the positional approach because the role that a person has de-
termines his qualification as a leader.

The partisan approach, or studies of power and influence, as Rossi
terms it, includes that body of research in which can be found the

33 C. Wright Mills,3u Katz and Lazarsfeld,3S Floyd

37

work of the Lynds,

Hunter,36 and Robert K. Merton

along with the other reputationally-
oriented school researchers. However, Rossi has also included studies
concerned with voting behavior, further studies of the power and in-
fluence of position or role, and studies of particular issues in which
power of influence have played a part in determining the outcome.38
The general aspects of the methodology have already been discussed.

The third of Rossi's approaches deals with particular processes.
This type of research has been somewhat limited to the controlled enn
vironment of the laboratory or to decisions which are relatively simple
and therefore more easily compared. The method generally consists of
bringing tOgether a set number of individuals, giving them some simple
task, and then observing the interaction or exercise of power taking
place among them.39

For the purposes of this study and of the particular community
under consideration, it seemed only natural that the first and third
approaches were too limited in scope in that while they deal with cer-
tain characteristics or actions of leaders, they do not provide a
wider framework in which to study power as it develops outside of the
formal authority group. This leaves the partisan approach or the re-

putational technique which must now be viewed from a critical point of

view.

36

In summary, we have said that a power structure for typical com-
munities can be assumed and that certain persons whether they be of
the official sources of power or not are capable of mobilizing enough
legitimate power to make important community decisions if they desire
to do so. It has also become clear that we cannot assume much more
than this. There are no grounds, except by comparison, to say that a
particular community institution, position, or role necessarily "has"
power. There very well may be a potential for power, but it must be
exercised. It must be communicated. This leads us to accept the
proposition that the members of a community are the best judges of that
community and that those members who are representative of the main
community institutions are even more qualified to be the judges of the
general existence of a power structure In the community.

Several of the criticisms that have been aimed particularly at
the reputational method for the study of community power have come
from Dahl,“0 Polsby,hl and Wolfinger.h2 D'Antonio and Erickson have
.helped to gather and look objectively at these criticisms.

As we have already said, one of the questions raised against the
method is that there is doubt as to the existence of a power struc-
ture. The other criticism is that even if such a social phenomenon
existed, there is doubt as to the scientific utility of such a method.
Dahl says that after using the method, nothing more should be said
than that the researcher has a list of those people with the reputa-
tion for being influential.“I Wolfinger more critically argues that
the method is a deficient technique for the study of local power

'6

systems.

37

Furthermore, Polsby states that the technique may be in reality
only a measurement of one of five variables; that is, respondents may
be naming:

l. a status elite;

2. the community's old civic warhorses;

3. the community's formal leadership;

A. the community's most vocal leaders; or,

5. a person connected with some specific issue which is

of recent interest especially salient to the respondent
or characteristic of the community.

Yet, as D'Antonio and Erickson report, many "political sociOIOgists con-
tinue to use the technique despite the criticisms, simply because the
criticisms do not in themselves attest to the inadequacy of the tech-
nique."#7

D'Antonio and Erickson based their answers to these method criti-
cisms on the rather extensive study cited earlier. It will be remem-
bered that eleven influence systems were compared in that study. Six
of those cities provided the data for their answers to these questions
raised by Dahl, Polsby, and Wolfinger.“8

Their method was the same as the modified Hunter technique in
which a group of knowledgeables in the community were asked to nomi-
nate influential persons. Then each influential in turn nominated the
I2 persons whom he considered to be "most influential" in his community.
Methodological changes took the formof additions to the question
schedules presented to each influential. Two questions were asked
that attempted to locate the controlling business and governmental

leaders in the communities. The first of these posed the question:

38

Who are the most influential businessmen of this community? The second
asked: Who are the most influential political or government leaders of
this community? TWelve names were elicited for each of the two ques-
tions and no pre-arranged lists were given to the respondents.

Data was also gathered on community issues in which the influen-
tials were involved. From these two areas the researchers were in-
terested in seeing the amount of overlap both in business and political
sectors and in community projects. This research took place in El Paso
and in C. Juarez in I955 and yielded the result that eleven persons re-
ceived three or more mentions on both lists. According to the criti-
cism of limited sc0pe, there should be little or no overlap of persons
assigned influence in the two scopes of influence in business and
politics and in community projects. Yet there was a significant degree
of overlap.

Another methodological change was that the method was repeated at
the border again in I958. The purpose was to see if the community in-
fluentials remained the same over an extended period of time in spite
of varying community issues. The question of longevity of influence is
directly relevant to the criticisms that salience of issues due to
recency in time controls the response of interviewees to questions in
which reputed general influence is being assessed.l+9 The research re-
vealed that the lists made in I955 of El Paso's influentials was
virtually unchanged in I958 except for the usual deaths and retirements
which take place in any social situation.

A hospital project was also introduced into the method used in
the six communities of El Paso, San Diego, C. Juarez, Tucson, Tijuana,

and Las Cruces. Comparisons were made between those chosen as general

39

community influentials and those chosen as influentials in a specific
area. High correlations were found. Coupled with the longitudinal
comparisons made in El Paso and C. Juarez over a three and one-half
year time span, the existence of a community power structure is scien-
tifically supported. The researchers also Show that, based on these
findings, the technique seems to be highly reliable.

They also report that

"respondents did not merely repeat the same names in

response to questions about the most influential in

business, or in government or politics, or for a hos-

pital project, or for general community decision-

making. But there was a significant overlap; g group

of one dozen persons reappeared on all lists." 0
From this it can be stated that the reputational technique does seem
to measure general community influence.

Wolfinger also argues that reputations might not be an adequate
index of the distribution of power. We can say that, based upon the
findings of D'Antonio and Erickson, such reputations for power do seem
to be an adequate index of the perceived distribution of power in the

SI

local community. Especially if we ascertain as Ehrlich suggests,
"that the way in which people perceive the power Structure of the local
political system affects the way in which they behave towards and in
that system. . ."52 Wolfinger also refutes the reputational technique
in that "general power rankings are misleading." However, could it
not be beneficial for social scientists to deal with an individual's
general reputation across several or all issue areas? Here again, the

recent findings of D'Antonio and Erickson tend to negate Wolfinger's

criticism that power rankings are misleading.

A0

Insofar as the findings of D'Antonio and Erickson are correct,
and from all statistical analyses, they seem to be, we can generally
conclude that:

l. The reputational technique for measuring general community

influence appears to be reliable in that it expresses
more than those people with only the reputation for
being influential as Dahl and others argue.

2. The reputational method tends to give more than just a
status elite or a limited scope of influence tank which
refutes the general criticisms of Polsby and Wolfinger.

Certainly there are still problems to be approached, defined, and
solved in regard to the reputational method. There still is little
reason why such a method should be disregarded from the repertory of
the sociologists. We need to continue testing and improving the
method. The present study is an attempt to move in this direction.
Further general strengths and weaknesses of the technique will be
viewed in the following discussion of the method that was used in

locating and describing the power structure of San JOSE.

The Method Used in San JOSE

The basic method used in the study of power in San JOSE is much
the same as that described above - namely, the modified Hunter tech-
nique. Thus, in this study we permitted the members of the community
to make the selection as to who the members of the power structure

were. These community "judges" or knowledgeables were selected because:

41

I. They had a rather broad understanding of the community;

2. They represented at least one of the primary institu-

tions and had a special knowledge of that sector;
and,

3. They were in positions in which contacts or communica-

tions with the top influentials were possible.

This investigation covered the time between September, 1960, and
November, 1962, but actual interviewing was not begun until March, I962.
The first rather lengthy period was spent in gaining certain facility
in the use of Spanish and studying the research site. Early In l96l,
a general study of San JOSE newspapers was begun; La NaciOn, the daily
newspaper with a circulation of around 50,000, the largest In the
country, was studied with greatest emphasis. Names appearing and re-
appearing in this paper were listed along with the community sector to
which they pertained. From this survey, plus additional reading, and
from personal observations and informal conversation, a list of the
major institutional areas of the country and community was formulated.
Such a general listing included government service, business and com-
merce, agriculture, education, religion, and law. Under the business
sector, industry, money lending, and banking were included; within
agriculture, coffee production, cattle raising, and wood processing
were of special importance. The list contained the names of persons who
appeared to be closely tied to each area, for example, as moneyed in-
terests, presidents, members of directing boards, stockholders, and
the like. It was used by the writer as a general tool to gain fami-
liarity with the main institutions of the city and the names of po-

tential power figures.

#2

Eventually 12 knowledgeables meeting the qualifications given
earlier were informally interviewed. It will be recalled that other
studies have used various numbers of knowledgeables in order to arrive
at the potential power structure. In Poplar Village, Hunter used 6,
while in Regional City, feeling that the larger community required

b.53 Klapp and Padgett interviewed 30 know-

more, he interviewed l
Iedgeables in conducting the Tijuana study. The result from all this
is that some criterion had to be developed in order to help determine
the relative number of knowledgeables that should be interviewed.5h
Plainly the first of these is dependent upon the basic purpose of the
study as would be the case if a cross section of the community were
being tested and compared to an influential group. If, on the other
hand, the group is to be representative of the main institutions in

the community, its size should depend on the qualifications and breadth
of the peOple being used as respondents. This consideration is more
relevant to the present Study. It is also important that some degree
of closure be noted in the data received, i.e. the re-appearance of
names of influentials. At the same time, and not to be minimized, is
the absolute necessity that a sufficient number of knowledgeables be
interviewed to avoid premature closure. In the San JOSE study, It was
felt that this point had been reached when it became possible to pre-

dict with reasonable accuracy the names that would appear in subse-

quent interviewings.

The 12 knowledgeables were asked one basic question: In your
opinion, who are the most influential people in the city of San JOSE?
The phrase "influential people" was operationally defined as those

persons in the community who had the power to make community-wide

43

decisions that would be accepted by the rest of the community. No
specific number of names was requested. Other questions were asked
during the course of the interview to help clarify the reportings of
the respondent. No pre-arranged lists were used during these inter-
views.

The group of knowledgeables included the manager of a bank, a bank
employee, two capitalists, a money-lender, an ex-congressman, two ex-
presidential candidates, a coffee exporter, a lawyer, a university
professor and ex-minister of education, and a Roman Catholic priest.55
It was felt that these peOple were a fair representation of the main
community institutions.

From the first phases of the study of community power in San JOSE,
l20 names were mentioned. These were placed in a general influence in-
dex, or file. All those receiving 3 or more mentions formed the basic
list of tOp influentials. There were only 29 persons who qualified for
this rating, a rather remarkable occurrence.

As is customary,,interviews were then arranged with the T.I. One
of the purposes of this series of interviews was to check the responses
of the knowledgeables with those of the top influentials themselves.

To this end an interview schedule was prepared which consisted of a
series of open-ended questions and a structured questionnaire. The Open-
ended question asked was the same as that presented to the knowledge-
ables: In your opinion, who are the most influential peOple in the

city of San JOSE?

Our purpose and use of the questionnaire differs methodologically
from what has been done before in studies of this type. We have

stated that our extra emphasis was to be placed on the communication

4L,

behaviors of the influentials in San JOSE. We selected this emphasis
for several reasons which may be reviewed profitably again. Power is
part and parcel of any so-called elite. Power must be communicated
either by coercion or by other less overt means. To exercise power,
influentials must act and their actions must be communicated to others
in the community so that others may act in accord. Other studies,

56

especially those of Miller and Hunter have made reference to the fact
that influentials have interactions with others of the power structure,
or they assume some type of "lone-horse" position which for various
hand sundry reasons serves to isolate them from the bulk of the power
structure.

Generally speaking, however, Influentials interact with each
other, be it at the club, around the luncheon table, in the conference
room, or in the carrying-out of their daily power roles in the commun-
ity. The place and form of these communication behaviors are not
nearly as important as the degree or frequency of the actual communi-
cative act. For this reason the questionnaire was given this orien-
tation for the San JOSE study. We wanted to see if members of the
power complex actually did communicate with each other, to what extent,
and if there were those persons common to most groups that would tend
to gather in sub-groups or cliques. The results from testing such
propositions should be of real value to the social scientist because
if proven reliable, it will help him to locate cliques in the community
power structure.

FOr these reasons, then, the questionnaire presented to each in-

fluential was constructed from a communication frame of reference.

’45

The first area covered was that of formal communication. The question
asked was: With what regularity do you have formal communications with
these people? Formal communication was defined in the questionnaire as
those contacts which take place in institutionalized meetings or dis-
cussions such as businessmen or governmental officials meeting face-
to-face would have. The list of the 29 T.I. was presented with four
degrees or measures of communication frequency: very much, much,
little, and none. Each respondent was requested to place a mark next
to the most appropriate word describing his degree of communication for
each of the other T.I.

Basically the same question, but concerning informal communica-
tions was posed next. Informal communications were defined as the
face-to-face contacts that good friends would have outside of community
institutions or business routines. V

The third question in this series was a consideration of the
amount of written communications that took place in the T.I. group.
These, of course, were defined as those formal or informal communica-
tions which take the form of a letter or memorandum. The same pro-
cedure was followed in that the frequency of communication question
was asked and the four degree designations presented.

The next division of the questionnaire was certainly not new to
reputational technique research even though its presentation took a
somewhat different form. We were not as interested as others have
been in compiling a list of the ten or twelve T.I. who received the
highest number of "votes” from the knowledgeables. On the other hand,

we were interested in obtaining a general influence score for every

top influential. Once again we reproduced the same alphabetical

#6

listing of all the T.I. including a five degree scale of community
influence for decision-making. This scale included the following
possible power degrees: He is one of the most influential; He is very
influential; He is influential; He is not very influential; He is not
influential. Every T.l. was asked to rank every other T.I. according
to the requirements of this scale for general community influence.

The next section of the questionnaire consisted of two projected
community issue areas. This procedure followed the suggestion of

57

D'Antonio and Erickson. The first dealt with a project for the con-

struction of a new orphanage in the community, which by its nature
would help to locate influentials in the social area of community life.
The following is an English translation of that question as it appeared.

Suppose that there is a project for the establishment of an
orphanage before the community which would require a group

of leaders to be identified with it that would at the same

time be accepted by the community. If you were free to se-
lect, what persons would you choose to compose this group?

It is not necessary that you know them personally.

The second community issue dealt with the founding of a new in-
dustry or business in the city and was designed to locate influentials
in economic Spheres of community life. The question can be trans-

lated thusly:

Suppose that there is a project for the establishment of
a new industry before the community which would require
a group of leaders to be identified with it who would

at the same time be accepted by the community. If you
were free to select, what persons would you choose to
compose this group? You do not have to know them per-
sonally. You may use the names that you submitted for
the other question directly above if they are applicable.

In both instances four names were requested.

In every case the respondent was told that he could use any name

whether it was on the list of influentials or not. Since the

47

open-ended question had already been asked, and since the findings of
the two projects just presented would be included as part of a larger
whole, it was not considered expedient to place them at any other
point in the interview questionnaire.

In summary, it will be noted that there are four general tests
for community power that were presented in the questionnaire. The
first is the open-ended question with which every interview was begun.
The second is the power ranking made by every T.l. of the general
community influence of the others. The third is the project dealing
with the orphanage, and the fourth, the new industry project. From
these we will be able to derive a general power score for each of the
T.I. and the ranking of the top influentials according to general com-
munity power will be made possible. It will be noted that we have in-
cluded both broad and limited SOOpes of influence in these four power
spheres.

The last part of the questionnaire which is relevant to this study
consisted of several questions designed to test the power perceptions
of the top influentials. These were:58

I. In your opinion, do you think that the most important

decisions in the community are made by the same group
or does the group change according to the issue
which is before the community?

2. Do the people who make the moSt important decisions in

the community have to have the approval of the organi-
zation or institutions to which they belong, or can

they act independently?

3. Are the most important community decisions resolved
silently or does the general public know about them?

A. Do you believe that the persons who generally make
the most important community decisions act for the
good of the community, or do they act to satisfy
their own interests?

48

The primary purpose of these questions was to arrive at generaliza-
tions concerning the perceptions that T.I. have of the power role
that they have and of the power structure in which they Operate.

On the 29 T.I., face-to-face interviews were held with 27. The
other two could not be interviewed In this way due to their absence
from the country, but one responded by letter and provided a portion
of the necessary data. Except where the nature of the question per-
mits, these two tOp influentials will be excluded from the findings
presented in the following chapter.

Comment should also be made at this point of the fact that there
was not a time when the writer was not shown the utmost in kindness
on the part of the respondents, and only once did a respondent abstain
from completing a small portion of the questionnaire.

It now remains to review the method briefly including the find-
ings. It will be necessary to assess the results by making compari-
sons of other studies of community power structures. However, before
continuing, we should be able to make several propositions about
what the findings should reveal basing such comments on what has al-
ready been stated in the general historical and methodological frames
of reference which have been presented.

I. From the historical background of the country and the

city, we should find that:
a. Some type of power structure exists;
b. Government, because of its historic position, Should

be represented in the power structure;

Co

#9

Political personalities should be represented

since parties and politics tend to cluster around
strong individuals;

Not all of the top Influentials will necessarily come

from wealthy families of long standing in the country.

2. Methodologically, we should be able to show that:

C.

d.

A power elite exists in the city of San JOSE, and
that it is more or less structured;

Logically, in a structure the members will communi-
cate with each other, and if cliques exist, the
degree of communication Should be greater among
their members;

Government, because of its increased degree of com-
munity articulation in San JOSE, should equal or
exceed the representation of business in the power
structure;

Not all of the influentials will possess the same

degree of general community power.

Other statements will be made when they can be seen in the context of

their methodological or statistical setting.

2.

3.

S.
6.

7.

9.

10.

ll.
l2.
13.
l4.
15.
l6.

I7.
18.

NOTES

 

CHAPTER II

For a discussion of Paine's Common Sense see: Robert B. Downs,
Books that Changed the World (New York: Mentor Books, I956), 28-40.

 

Charles A. Beard, ed., The Enduring_Federalist (New York: Double-
day and Co., Inc., I948), 52-75.

H. H. Gerth and G. Wright Mills, trans., From Max Weber: Essays
in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), l59-252.

Lowry Nelson, Charles E. Ramsey, and Coolie Verner, Community
Structure and Change (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1960), I76.

Hunter, ll.

Ibld

lbid., 107.

12.

lbid., I63.

Nelson and Others, l82.

The concepts of Top Influential (T.I.) and Key Influential (K.I.)
were jointly deveIOped by Delbert C. Miller and William H. Form.
For a complete discussion see: William H. Form and Delbert C.
Miller, Industry, Labor, and Community (New York: Harpers, 1960).
Miller, American Sociological Review, 23, No. l.

D'Antonio and Others, American Sociological Review, 26, No. 3, 446.

Miller, American Sociological Review, 23, No. l, 13.

lbid., IS.

 

D'Antonio and Others, American Sociological Review, 26, No. 3, 445.

Klapp and Padgett, The American Journal of Sociology, 65, No. 4,
401.

lbid., 002.

 

Hunter, 77-78.

50

I9.

20.

21.
22.
23.
24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

3I.

32.

33.
34.

35-

36.
37.

38-

51

Ibid.

 

Klapp and Padgett, The American Journal of Sociology, 65, No. 4

 

Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown in Transition
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., 1956).

C. Wright Mills, White Collar (New York: Oxford University Press,
I956).

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University
Press, I959).

Robert O. Schulze and Leonard U. Blumberg, The American Journal of
Sociology, 63, No. 3, 291.

Nelson W. Polsby, “Three Problems in the Analysis of Community
Power," American Sociological Review, 24 (December, I959), 799.

lbid., 803.

Robert A. Dahl, "A Critique of the Ruling Elite Model," American
Political Science Review, 52, No. 2 (June, I958), 465.

Peter H. Rossi, "Community Decision Making," Administrative Science
Quarterly, Vol. 1, (I956).

W. Lloyd Warner and Others, Democracy In Jonesville (New York:
Harper and Bros., I949).

Lynd.
Mills, The Power Elite.

Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence (Glencoe,
Illinois: The Free Press, l955).

Hunter.

Robert K. Merton, "Patterns of Interpersonal Influence," in Paul
F. Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton, Communications Research: 1948-49
(New York: Harpers, 1949).

Rossi, Administrative Science_gparterly, l, p. 425.

39.

41.

42.

43.

49.

50-

51-

52-

53.
54.

55.

52

See Cartwright. This work is an attempt to bring research of this
type together.

Dahl, American Political Science Review, 52, No. 2.

Nelson W. Polsby, "The Sociology of Community Power: A Reassess-
ment," Social Forces, 37, No. 3 (March, 1959), 232-236.

Raymond E. Wolfinger, "Reputation and Reality in the Study of Com-
munity Power," American Sociological Review, 25 (October, I960),

636-6%.

D'Antonio and Erickson, American Sociological Review, 27, No. 3,

362-3760

Dahl, American Political Science Review, 52, No. 2.

WOlfinger, American Sociological Review, 25, 636.

Polsby, Social Forces, 37, No. 3.

D'Antonio and Erickson, American Sociological Review, 27, No. 3.
See D'Antonio and Others, American Sociological Review, 26, No. 3.
William V. D'Antonio and Eugene C. Erickson, "Validation of the
Reputational Technique for the Study of Community Power: An Eval-
uation Based on Comparative and Longitudinal Studies," reading
draft prepared prior to publication (Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan),
18-20. (MimeOQraphed.)

lbid.

 

Howard J. Ehrlich, "The Reputational Approach to the Study of Com-
munity Power," American Soci010gical Review, 26, No. 1 (December,

IbId.
Hunter, 265-269.

Dr. William H. Form told the writer in conversation that he had
developed a workable method for determining the number of know-
ledgeables to use: take two representatives from each of the
primary institutional sectors of the community and interview them.

Since labor is not well-organized in San JOSE, no informant was
sought. Also, if there had not been so much general agreement
among the knowledgeables, the number of such respondents would
have been increased to include communications.

53

56. Delbert C. Miller, "Decision-Making Cliques In Community Power
Structures: A Comparative Study of an American and an English
City," The American Journal of Sociology, 64, No. 3 (November,
1958). 299-310-

57. See D'Antonio and Erickson, American Sociological Review, 27,
No. 3.

58. These questions were originally deveIOped and used by Form and
Sauer. See: William H. Form and Warren L. Sauer, "Organized
Labor's Image of Community Power Structure," Social Forces, 38,
No. 4 (May, 1960).

CHAPTER III

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The Power Structure in San JOSE

In this chapter the results produced by the previously outlined
method will be presented. We will attempt to Show that there is a
power elite in the city of San JOSE composed of individuals of vary-
ing degrees of general community influence. We will also show that
communication among the influentials exists and that the power struc-
ture, while greatly interconnected, contains cliques.

It will be remembered that this study began with institutionally
representative knowledgeables who were requested, without benefit of
suggestion, to nominate ”most influential" community leaders. TWelve
such knowledgeables were informally interviewed. They produced an
over-all total of l20 names, which with pertinent demOgraphic informa-
tion, were filed in a general influence index along with a record of
the number of "votes" that each received. These 120 individuals re-
ceived 289 mentions or about 2.4 mentions apiece. However, as Table I
shows, the voting was not evenly distributed throughout the group.

In examining Table I, it can be seen that there were 29 persons who
received 3 or more mentions from the knowledgeables. It was decided
to include only these 29 on the top influential list that would even-
tually be presented to each of the 29 persons themselves. It is sig-
nificant to note that while this group consisted of only 24 per cent

of the persons named, that it received 59 per cent of the total

54

55

mentions given by the l2 knowledgeables, certainly a substantial indi-

cation that these influentials have the reputation for being influen-

 

 

 

tial.
TABLE I.
DISTRIBUTION OF HENTIONS OF INFLUENTIALS
BY.KNOWLEDGEABLES
No. of No. of Percent No. of Percent of
Mentions Persons of Persons Mentions Mentions
Twelve 3 36
Eleven 1 ll
Nine 3 27
Eight 1 8
Seven 1 24% 7 59%
Six 3 l8
Five 4 20
Four 7 28
IDEEE ------------- é------------------------------l§ -------------------
TWO 25 76% 50 LII%
One 66 66
TOtals 120 100% 289 IOO%

Having thus tentatively located the top influentials from the data
supplied by the knowledgeables, it was then necessary to check such re-
sults by permitting the T.I. the same opportunity to name and rank in-
fluentials, many of whom would be the same as those 29 on the T.I. list

In the open-ended question with which each T.I. interview was be-
gun and before any list, questionnaire, or suggestions were introduced,
the respondents were requested to name five or six individuals whom

they considered to be most influential. As Table 2 clearly shows, this

56

procedure tended to produce names which were already in the top in-
fluential list of 29. Of the total number of 40 names that were
given, 27 were of those who had previously been identified as influen-
tials, and of these, the 18 mentioned T.I. netted 68 per cent of all

the "votes."
TABLE 2.

DISTRIBUTION OF MENTIONS OF INFLUENTIALS
BY MEMBERS OF TOP INFLUENTIAL GROUP

(Open-ended Question)

Number of Per cent of Number of Per cent of
Persons Persons Mentions Mentions

 

 

On Selected

 

T.|. List 18 45% 68 68%
On Gen. lnfl.
Index List 9 22% I6 16%
New Names I 3 33% 16 16%
Totals 40 100% 100 100%

Only 3 individuals not on the general influence index made as many
as two mentions apiece, while the other 10 received only one "new"
mention.

In one case, one person who was already on the preliminary list
but not chosen for the T.I. list because of an insufficient number of
"votes“ from the knowledgeables, received 4 mentions. This demon-
strated the ease with which new names could be brought into prominence.
But in only this one instance did a name rival those that were already
selected from the preliminary interviews. Since this one name appeared

late in the interviewing process, it was decided that nothing Should be

57

done except to admit that here was a person who had the potential for
being influential, but who simply could not be considered in the
present study. It is significant, however, that only one such case ap-
peared. This is certainly positive evidence for the method and shows
that while there is the possibility of premature closure, it is highly
unlikely. The fact remains that 84 per cent of all the 100 mentions
were received by influentials already identified, and 68 per cent of
these were received by those selected for the final list that was used
in constructing the questionnaire.

After the introductory oral question, the prepared questionnaire
was presented to the top influential. As a part of this, the respon-
dent was asked to assign a score for general community influence to
each of the other T.I. on the list. There was a five-point scale pre-
sented ranging from "the most influential“ to "not influential.” The
respondent was requested to place a mark next to the most appropriate
word which described the community influence of the person named.
Space was provided in case the respondent desired to enter more names.
Only 5 names were written in by the T.l. in the 27 interviews that
were conducted.

It should be noted that the answers given to this question to a
large extent would actually reflect the perceptions of the persons re-
sponding as they saw themselves in relation to the rest of the influen-
tial group. We will have cause to return to this point, but for the
present discussion it will suffice to say that this ranking was used
to obtain a comparative order so that an assignment of general com-
munity influence could be made. However, it should be remembered that

perception of power, because of Its effect on behavior, is as Important

58

to this study and its findings as the more objective measures that
were employed.

AS a further check for the findings provided by the knowledgeables
and as part of the assignment of power to T.I., two proposed but
realistic projects were introduced into the questionnaire. The first
which we will refer to as “Project A” dealt with the establishment of
a new orphanage, and "Project 8" concerned the founding of a new in-
dustry in the community. While it is true that the respondent had
seen the basic T.I. list before, the completely different natures of
the two projects made this a slight consideration. It is important
to remember that the respondent was requested to give 4 names of com-
munity leaders who could carry the project to completion. Since there
were two projects, each respondent was asked to submit a total of 8
names. It was made clear in all instances that he did not have to use
any name that appeared previously in the questionnaire.

In "Project A” a total of 47 persons were named. Of these 36
were men, and because of the nature of the issue involved, 11 were
women. Table 3 shows that there were 99 mentions given to this group
of 47. Of the mentions, 81 were received by the men and 18 were given
to the women. Of the persons named, 25 were peOple who had never ap-
peared on the general influence index or on the T.I. list, and of these
14 were men who were mostly doctors and priests, and II were women.

On the other hand, and as Table 3 reveals, 22 of the 47 persons named
were those who had previously been identified as influentials.

It is also noteworthy to consider the mentions that were given to
the persons named for "Project A." The T.I. received 57 per cent of

the total mentions while the secondary Influentials (S.I.) netted

59

4 per cent, and the newly named persons received 39 Per cent of the
"votes." Of the 39 per cent received by the "new" potential influen-

tials, 21 per cent were given to the men, and 18 per cent to the

 

 

 

women.
TABLE 3.
DISTRIBUTION OF MENTIONS OF INFLUENTIALS BY T.I.
GROUP FOR ORPHANAGE PROJECT
AND NEW INDUSTRY PROJECT
"Project A" No. of Per cent of No. of Per cent of
Orphanage Persons Persons Mentions Mentions
On 7.1. List 18 38% 56 57%
Gen. Infl. List 4 9%. 4 9%
New Names 25 53% 39 39%
Totals 47 100% 99 100%

"Project B"
New Industry

 

 

 

On T.I. List 14 32% 57 56%
Gen. Infl. List 9 21% 21 21%
New Names 21 47% 23 23%

TOtals 44 100% 101 100%

"Projects A and B“

 

 

 

Names Selected for Both No. of Per cent of
Names Names
On T.I. List 9 100%
Gen. Infl. List 0 --
New Names 0 --
TOtals 9 100%

60

It is interesting to note that because of the relatively large
addition of new names, the respondents were not necessarily interested
in solely repeating the names of the top influentials. Yet as can be
seen from Tables 2 and 3, the overlap was considerable. The purpose of
"Project A" was to help locate those community leaders of a social
orientation. Because of this, doctors, religious leaders, businessmen,
and professionals were named with the greatest frequency. Among the
top 4 T.|. named, 3 were doctors, and one was a religious leader in
the Roman Catholic Church.

"Project B," designed to locate the economic influentials of the
community, and of a quite different nature than "Project A," never-
theless gave support to the hypothesis that there is overlap of T.1.
from issue to issue. This fact can be observed in Table 3. To deal
with the new industry, a total of 44 persons were named, and as can be
expected they were all men. To this group there was a total of 101
"votes" given. Table 3 clearly shows that of the mentions given,

56 per cent went to the T.l. group of 14, while 21 per cent of the men-
tions were received by the general influence index group. In other
words, 77 per cent of the total mentions went to people already selec-
ted as influentials.

Of the general influence index group and of the potentially in-
fluential group, not one was mentioned for both "Project A" and
"Project B" while 9 of the T.l. were selected for both projects. In
passing, it is interesting to note that from list to liSt, from pro-
ject to project, and from ranking to ranking, in the discussion of
community power, representatives of the T.I. group appear with

regularity.

61

At this point we have viewed four separate procedures for deter-
mining the general community power of the T.1. as were used in the
method for the study of San José. Each one represents some rather
interesting data and useable information. As will be remembered,
most other studies employing the reputational technique base the final
decision for power on the existence of a rank score made solely by
counting the "votes” of the T.I. or the knowledgeables who responded
to one question grounded on one criteria. This then would produce the
key influentials (K.I.) or sociometric leaders among the T.l. We would
argue that the existence of a well-organized clique could quite possibhr
influence such a voting mechanism to the extent that its reliability
could be questioned, especially at the lower levels of the power com-
plex. To help overcome this, and at the same time to give us a more
accurate measurement, the "power synthesis" technique was devised.
This was a power score based on a compilation consisting of the appli-
cable results of:

1. the oral open-ended question with which every inter-

view was begun where possible (weighted at 5 points
for a mention);

2. the rank of general community power given to each of
the T.l. by the other T.|. as was employed in the
questionnaire (weighted from 4 for a "most influen-
tial" mention to O for a "not influential" mention);

3. "Project A" which dealt with the establishment of an

orphanage (weighted at 1 point for a mention, 0 for

no mention); and,

62

4. "Project B” which dealt with the founding of a new in-
dustry in the community (weighted at 1 point for a
mention, 0 for no mention).

Because of its unstructured nature, it was felt that proportion-
ally more weight should be given to the open-ended oral question.

In turn, the power ranking was set at from 4 to O, and the two pro-
jects, due to their quite specific natures, were weighted at 1 point
per mention. The series of numbers or scores was then added.

This procedure produced the power synthesis rank which was suffi-
cient base to rank the T.l. as to general community power. It should
be added that correlations were made as a type of check on the tech-
nique. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient for the respective
rankings given to the 29 T.I. by the knowledgeables and that provided
by the power synthesis produced a correlation coefficient of .54. If
there were no relation between the two, the possibility for such an
occurrence to happen by chance is less than one-in-a-hundred. A part-
whole correlation was then made which employed the T.l. influence rank
for community decision-making and the power synthesis score. (The
reason that this was a part-whole correlation was because the T.|.
score was a part of the total power synthesis score.) We thereby
necessarily should have a positive relation. However, the obtained
value of .95 shows the high degree of consistency between the part
and the whole.

Since each of the T.l. was given a general power score, it was
then possible to rank each of them in order from the highest in gen-
eral community influence to the lowest. Before presenting this rank

with the method used for coding each of the T.l., it is of present

63

interest to note the demographic characteristics of the T.I. in the
city of San Jose. We will herein consider the degree of education,
approximate age distribution, sex composition, and occupational or in-
stitutional affiliations of the group.

From an educational point of view, we can state that the entire
T.I. group has a high degree of education. And the K.I. rank espec-
ially high having 4 with advanced degrees as can be seen in Table 4.
Of the T.1. only one stOpped at the grade school level, while 8 grad-
uated from high school and 12 more received a university education.

Of the 29, 8 hold advanced university degrees of some kind.

TABLE 4.
EDUCATION AND AGE DISTRIBUTION OF K.I. AND T.|.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Education Level K.I. S.I. T.1.
Advanced Degree 4 4 8
University Graduate 4 8 12
High School Graduate 2 6 8
Grade School Graduate - l 1
Totals 10 19 29
Approximate Age Level K.I. S.I. T.I.
66 or more - 2 2
61 - 65 1 2 3
56 - 6O 2 l 3
51 - 55 2 4 6
46 - 50 3 4 7
til-1+5 ' 3 3
35 - 40 l 2 3
No Data 1 l 2
Totals 10 19 29

64

The greatest concentration of age among the T.|. is between 45
and 55. Table 4 also reveals that the approximate age for the K.I. is
not appreciably different from that of the secondary influentials. No
one in the entire group is less than 35 and only 2 are nearing 70 years
of age.

As can be expected for Latin America, even though the trend seems
to be the same for communities in the United States, the group of T.I.
is composed entirely of men, even though we have seen that in one com-
munity project reflecting participation in socially-oriented scopes,
women were mentioned. It will also be remembered that in the discussion
of the background of the country, we reported that great families used
to direct the country. The question can now be raised as to the
existence of family or kinship ties among the T.l. Even in the Inter-
views with the knowledgeables, families were named from time to time
although not with great frequency. Within the top influential group
there was only one instance of a father-son relationship, while two
were brothers-in-law and three reported uncle-nephew ties.

Categorizing the T.l. occupationally or institutionally was no
simple task since it was difficult to find any one individual with
only one major emphasis or community activity. Many have two or even
more areas in which they work. A political or government leader, for
example, might well earn the better share of his livelihood from en-
tirely different sources such as those of agriculture or business.

For this reason Table 5 was constructed to give both the major or
primary designation or occupational role and secondary sectors of
activity. For the most part, these primary and secondary roles were

based on the answers given by the person concerned. In one or two

65

cases there was a disparity between what the T.l. gave as his primary
designation because he referred to the activity which earned him his
livelihood instead of giving his political position. These obvious
differences were adjusted to more closely approach reality. We can also
observe from Table 5 that the ranking based on the power synthesis
score is included. This power score was used in order that the com-
munity sectors might be ranked according to relative importance as a
source of power. It will be noted that the list is divided into K.I.
and S.I.

From Table 6 it can be seen that in the institutional analysis
of the T.l. that government and politics and business and finance are
tied as far as being represented in the primary designation of the
power structure. However, when the secondary designations are added,
the first sector, that of government and politics, goes far ahead while
coffee and agriculture is second and business and finance moves to
third representational rank. Table 6 also presents the percentage
totals for the K.I., the S.I., and for the entire group. Of note is
the fact that among the primary designations for the K.I. that no one
is emphatically connected with coffee and agriculture, but that 40 per
cent of the K.I. are in some way concerned with government and poli-
tics. Among the secondary influentials, 32 per cent are primarily
engaged in the coffee and agriculture sector with only 16 per cent
in government and politics. When the major and secondary designa-
tions are combined, the government and politics sector still has the
greatest representation in the power complex, but coffee and agricul-

ture is also well-represented with 25 per cent. The business and

finance and professional sectors are tied with 19 per cent representatim

 

66

each and communications and religion also tie with 4 per cent

apiece.

TABLE 5.
POWER RANK, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OCCUPATIONAL
ROLES OF THE TWENTY-NINE INFLUENTIALS

Power Synthesis Rank Primary Designation Secondary Designation

W

2. Government 5 Politics Coffee 5 Agriculture
3. Religion --------
4. Business 5 Finance Government 5 Politics
5. Professional (Med.) Government 5 Politics
6. Communications Government 5 Politics
7. Government 5 Politics --------

8. Business 5 Finance Coffee 5 Agriculture
9. Professional (Law) Government 5 Politics
10. - - - - - - - - - - oneznment-8-P2'1ti°§ - -Ceffes E assisultsrs -
11. Coffee 5 zgficulture Government 5 Politics

12. Business 5 Finance --------

13. Government 5 Politics Professional (Educa.)
14. Business 5 Finance Professional (Law)
15. Government 5 Politics Religion

16. Professional (Med.) Business 5 Finance
17. Communications Government 5 Politics
18. Professional (Med.) Government 5 Politics
19. Business 5 Finance Coffee 5 Agriculture
20. Professional (Law) --------

21. Business 5 Finance --------

22. Government 5 Politics Professional (Law)
23. Coffee 5 Agriculture Business 5 Finance
24. Professional (Law) --------

25. Business 5 Finance Coffee 5 Agriculture
26. Coffee 5 Agriculture ----- ---

27. Coffee 5 Agriculture -- ------

28. Coffee 5 Agriculture --------

29.

Government 5 Politics

Coffee 5 Agriculture

Coffee 5 Agriculture

DISTRIBUTION OF 10 K.I. AND 19 5.1. BY PRINCIPAL

Government
Agriculture
Business
Professional
Communications
Religion

(0)

No Designation

Government
Agriculture
Business
Professional
Communications
Religion

Tbtal

(n)

67

TABLE 6.

AND SECONDARY OCCUPATIONAL ROLES

 

 

 

 

Primary Designation Secondary Designation Total
K.I. S.I. 'T.I. K.I. S.I. T.l.
4 3 7 4 3 7 I4
- 5 5 4 2 6 12
2 5 7 - 2 2 9
2 4 6 - 3 3 9
1 1 2 - - - 2
l - l - l l 2
10 19 29 8 ll 19
. . . . . . . . . . 2 8 10
lo 19 29 48

PERCENTAGE TOTALS

 

K.I. S.I. T.1. Per cent for Combination of
lst and 2nd Designations

40% 16% 24% 29%

"" 32% 21% 25%

20% 26% 24% 19%

20% 21% 21% 19%

10% 9% 7% 4%

10% "" 3% 4%
100% 100% 100% 100%

(10) (19) (29) (48)

68

Historically speaking, it would not have been at all surprising
to have found that coffee and agriculture would have been the sector
with the greatest representation. However, we may be seeing the
effects of the changing character of the country as it moves gradually
toward greater economic diversification with possibly a trace of the
decline of the all-important role of coffee as a source of power.

The question can now be raised concerning the general percep-
tions that the T.l. have of the role of power and of the power struc-
ture in the community. It will be recalled that in the discussion of
the T.I. community influence rank in the questionnaire, it was stated
that such a method would tend to show the general perceptions that
the T.I. have of the over-all power that they contain as a group.
Table 7 shows the general perception of influence that the T.I. ascribe
to themselves based on the number of times that they selected each of
the five degrees of influence. From this evidence it can be said that
they tend to ascribe considerable power to themselves. While there is
a shading-off at both the highest and lowest levels, 64 per cent of
the total ratings stated that the people in the group are influential.
Only 9 per cent of the ratings positively said that the person in
question was "not influential."

Having thus received some insight into what the group of T.I.
think of the over-all influence or power that they have, it was then
necessary to attempt to visualize what they think of the power role as
such. To this and four questions were posed in the questionnaire.

The wording of these appears above. It will be necessary to summarize
by saying that the first question was concerned with the smaller

decision-maker group, the second was concerned with the dependency of

69

the decision-maker on the organization, and the third and fourth
questions concerned the community - its knowledge of important deci-
sions, and the extent to which it is served by the decision-makers.
Table 8 shows how the K.I. and the 5.1. answered as separate entities,

and then as the larger group of T.I.
TABLE 7.
PERCEIVED INFLUENCE LEVEL OF LISTED T.I.

GROUP BY THEMSELVESa

General Influence .
Level No. of Per cent of Percentage
Ouith number rank) Mentions Mentions Tbtals

 

 

One of the "most

 

influential" (4) 50 7%
Very Influential (3) 228 30% 64%
Influential (2) 205 27%
Not very Influential (l) 203 27%
36%
Not Influential (0) 7O 9%
Totals 756 100% 100%
8Note: 2 individuals received 27 ratings each = 54
27 individuals received 26 ratings each = 202
Total ratings 756

Of note is the way in which their answers tend to support what
we might think of as a socially acceptable view of power. In other
‘words, they say just about what we might expect them to say principally

because the society teaches that these things are so, and if not, they

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m4om 4<_hzm:4uz_ mxb no wzo_hmmu¢mm

.w m4m<fi

71

should be so. We will have cause to return to this important con-
sideration later in the comparative analysis.

In short, the T.I. report that the group changes from issue to
issue. (We must admit that the wording of this question was rather
vague in that we still do not know to what extent the group changes.
As one T.1. put it, "It's a fact that the group changes from issue to
issue, but the change is slight.") While the majority of the T.l.
view the influential role as an independent one, there was consider-
able disagreement among the K.l. as to whether the decision-maker is
free to act independently or if he has to have the approval of his or-
ganization. This was probably due to the fact that the 3 K.I. who
checked the need to receive approval all have what we might term
"lesser'l government positions which would tend to place them in a po-
sition in which getting general party approval would be important.

There was substantial feeling among the T.I. that important com-
munity decisions were known by the public even though 33 per cent of
the total said that it depends on the problem, the situation, or the
persons involved. One of the T.I. said, "The public almost knows too
much of what is going on around here."

While the K.I. were split as to whether the decision-makers acted
for the good of the community or for their own interests, the over-all
group total, interestingly enough, gave proof that it depends on the
individual, the problem, or the situation. Generally speaking, we can
conclude that even with the great limitations of the questions, the

group views the decision-maker role as necessary yet as not possessing

all of the power or running the city quite as independently as this

kind of study sometimes leads one to believe.

72

It was also found that a person to whom relatively high power was
ascribed, in turn gave little power score to others. A Spearman rank
correlation was made between this ascribed power score, or the score
that the T.I. gave to others, and his achieved power score, or the
power rating that he received from others. The methodological differ-
ence that was involved was that the score given to others was ranked
from the smallest to the largest from the standpoint of total scores.
In other words, if Influential A ascribed little power to others, he I
was placed first on the rank. If, however, he achieved the highest
power rating from all the other T.l., he was also placed first on the
rank to be correlated. This procedure produced a correlation co-
efficient of -.50 which is significant at the .01 level. This evidence
seems to show us that a person has a perception of his own power and
that when he perceives himself as powerful (and this certainly must
be the case for many of the K.I. especially), he will tend to look upon
others as having less power than he has. This was shown in that peOple
with high power scores gave relatively lower power scores to others
with whom they were being compared. In turn, a person who might not
rank highly among the T.I. group will tend to see himself surrounded
by power and will ascribe much greater power to the other T.I. Most
certainly this proposition will require greater study and testing be-
fore any concrete conclusion can be drawn therefrom.

In this section we have been considering the power structure,
its location and composition in the city of San Jose, Costa Rica, and
the power perceptions that it has. The next discussion will be con-

cerned with the interaction or communication that takes place within

the power complex. Such an interest should help us to describe the

 

73

influential group and to see to what degree it has the solidarity of a
group. For our purposes, the group will be defined from the set of
relationships resulting from the interaction among its members. In
such a discussion, it will be necessary to consider the size of the
group which will be measured by the number of persons interacting.

Of equal interest will be the formality or informality of communication.
In other words, we will be interested to see the difference or simi-
larity between the formal interactions which take place in accordance
with prescribed rules, and the informal interactions which do not
necessarily follow any established rules. 0f further interest will be

the degree of this communication which takes place within the group.
Communication Behavior in the Power Structure

We have shown by means of several testing devices that a power
structure exists in San Jose. We have been talking at length about
the group aspect of the T.I. stating that as a group they tend to per-
ceive the power complex in several ways. However, the question can be
raised as to what kind of a social bond exists among these influen-
tials. There is no concrete way that we have discussed in which any
argument against the existence of such an interacting group could be
refuted. Herein many social scientists tread on unstable ground when
they talk about the interconnectedness of the power structure.

Another way of wording the same question is to ask if communica-
tion exists among the top Influentials. If it does, then we can
safely conclude the existence of a group based on the degree of com-

munication solidarity within the group.

74

Barring any family "feuds" it can be assumed that the members of a
family interact. They communicate with each other. We have seen that
while such family ties exist in the power complex, their degree is so
slight that we could not say that this was sufficient base to define
a group. Aside from this, general surveys of the membership of various
clubs has revealed that the members of the San Jose power elite get
together. Table 9 is an expression of such occurrences. Of the six
organizations that were selected, the downtown "Club UniOn" has the
greatest overlap of T.|. members. Many also belong to the "Country
Club." It is significant that the T.I. have such contacts open to then.
This certainly facilitates communication and is a rather good indica-
tion that San Jose influentials see each other.

However, considerations as these, tend to segment the occurrence
of communication within the group, and to base any judgment on such
interaction is not altogether reliable due to the fact that membership
alone does not necessarily mean that the influentials will communicate
with each other even though memberships in organizations as these are
certainly important. It was felt, however, that a more rigorous tech-
nique was needed to measure the interconnectedness of the power com-
plex.

In evolving a method that would fulfill our purposes, we had to
decide from what point of view group communication would be studied.
For example, attention can be placed on the sender or the receiver,
the channels, and the message in the communication process. Since em-
phasis on the particular messages that "flow" through the group would
be too involved, it was decided not to attempt a study of the message

or its treatment. However, since we are considering the social

75

TABLE 9.
ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS OF T.|. FOR

SIX COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

 

 

 

 

 

Club Country Cham. of a b Tennis
Person UniOn Club Commerce ANFE CAFESA Club
a l (x)° (x) (x)
G 2 X X (X) (X)
R 3
B 4 X X X X
P 5
C 6 X (X) (X)
G 7 X
B 8 X X (X) X X
P 9 x (x)
G 10 X
K.I. Total Percentages
(n=lo 70% 60% 30% 20% 30% 20%
A 11 X
B 12 X X (X)
G 13
B 14 X X (X)
G 15
P 16 X X
C 17 X
P 18
B 19 X (X)
P 20
B 21 X X (X) (X)
G 22
A 23 x (X) (X)
P 24 X X X
B 25_ (X)
A 26 X X X X X
A 27 X X X X
A 28 X X X
A 29 X X X X X
5.1. Tbtal Percentages
(n=l9) 58% 47% 32% 32% 21% 21%
T.I. Tbtal Percentages
(n=29) 62% 52% 31% 28% 24% 21%

 

:A local business organization. bA local coffee organization.
X= direct membership; (X)=family or business membership.

76

dimension of the communication process which would necessarily include
the formal and informal contacts of senders and receivers, our empha-
sis was limited to the sender-channel-receiver relationship.

Methodologically this is quite possible in a power study whereas
the messages that take place in this "flow" of communication must to
a considerable extent be assumed. Given a group of politicians, their
interactions will take a political orientation; businessmen would no
doubt spend a large portion of their verbal and written communication
time discussing economical matters. We can assume if people talk to
each other, that they will communicate about that which they know the
most. Power people, if they are involved in a decision or issue, or
if they constitute a group, in communicating with each other are bound
to talk about some phase of community decision-making.

Having thus limited the consideration, a technique for measuring
the frequency of communication between the possible contacts in the
power structure was designed. Every respondent was asked to indicate
the amount of communication that took place between each of the other
T.I. and himself. Such data was requested at both the formal and the
informal levels. We also wanted to see the degree of written communi-
cation among the T.I. To this end, three listings were prepared as part
of the questionnaire. The respondent was asked to place a mark next to
the word which most exactly described his communication with the person
whose name was on the list. Four designations were available: very
much, much, little, and none. It is noteworthy to add that since
every respondent would be rating his degree of communication with each

of the others, that there would of necessity be two responses recorded:

77

that of the person himself, and that of the other T.l. on the list of
29. Such a procedure gave a cross-check result which because of its
nature would be more objective. All the ratings were translated into
more workable number scores with 3 corresponding to the highest fre-
quency of communication, 2 for the next level, and so forth to 0 which
corresponded to the "no communication” level.

The first question to be asked of our data was that concerned with
the gross existence of communication in the group regardless of the
particular type of frequency. It was first decided to view the formal
level of communication since this possibly would be the level most used
for decision-making. The informal level was given next consideration,
and then the written level of communication was analyzed.

Table 10 shows the gross amount of communication among the 29 in-
fluentials at the formal level. Since no names could be included in
, the report of the study, a system of coding each of the 29 was made
necessary. It will be remembered that each person received a power
synthesis score for his degree of general community power or influence.
This score was used to give every individual a number. If a particular
person was tenth in the power rank, he was given the corresponding
number of 10. Furthermore, if he were in politics or government as
his majg; designation, the letter ”G" appeared with his number giving
him a code "name” of "G 10." The institutional code was as follows:
"G" for government and politics, "B'I for business and finance, l”P" for
professional, "C" for communications, "A" for coffee and agriculture,
and "R" for religion. Table 10 presents each individual with his

coded "name" and the number of times he reported “no communication"

78

or "sending" communication and not "receiving" it, or "receiving" but
not "sending" or BOTH "sending" and "receiving" communication. To
"send” communication refers to the reported act of communicating with
another person, but not getting a reciprocated response of positive
communication from that person. The reverse of this occurs when a re-
port of communication is "received" from another, but not reciprocated
from the person "receiving" it. various reasons can be given for the
occurrence of this type of response. We prefer to look on it as de-
pendent upon the perception that one person has of the availability of
communication open to him.

It is of primary importance to note that G 7 and P 20 emerge in
Table 10 as isolates reporting 25 and 23 I'no communications" apiece for
the T.l. group. We did not have sufficient data to report on R 3, and
for this reason no scores appear for him. Considering the over-all
amount of communication, we can say that a very high degree exists.

The K.I. report communicating with about 13 of the T.|. while the S.I.
report communicating with almost 14. On the other hand, both the K.I.
and the S.I. report not communicating with about 8 of the T.I. All of
the scores are for average reports. Even when the isolates are removed,
the high degree of communication is even more apparent for the K.I. and
the 5.1. Even though the difference is slight, it is interesting to
note that the K.I. tend to report communication with more people than
the S.I. In turn, they also report less "no communications" than the
5.1. The K.I. tend to send less communication than they get while the
5.1. report sending more communications than they receive. Here again,
the actual differences are slight, and they vary little even when the

isolates are removed.

79

TABLE 10.
FORMAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS IN THE T.I. GROUPa

10 Keyilnfluentials

 

 

 

 

 

 

. Highest
No Commun. Commun. Commun. Recip.

Person Commun. Sent Rec'd. Recip. Commun.

G 1 6 3 O 18 6

G 2 4 2 2 l9 9

R 3 ' ' ' ' '

B 4 7 I 3 l6 3

P 5 5 1 7 14 4

C 6 S O 12 10 2

G 7 25 0 2 O 0

B 8 7 3 l 16 5

P 9 6 4 2 15 3

G 10 10 1 3 13 4

Total with 150. 75 15 32 121 - (243 )
Mean 8.33 1.67 3.56 13.44 - ( 27.00)
Tbtal less Iso. 50 15 30 121 - (216 )
Mean 5.25 1.88 3.75 15.13 - ,( 26.01)

19 Secondary_lnfluentials

A ll 14 O 2 II 0

B 12 3 O 0 24 3

G 13 5 2 8 12 2

B 14 6 0 4 17 l

G 15 13 2 O 12 4

P 16 l S 2 19 l

C 17 7 8 O 12 3

P 18 11 1 O 15 4

B 19 5 5 2 15 0

P 20 23 I 3 0 0

B 21 8 1 4 I4 1

G 22 10 2 1 I4 3

A 23 7 7 l 12 2

P 24 2 6 l 18 1

B 25 7 2 4 14 1

A 26 ll 2 2 12 1

A 27 13 3 1 10 O

A 28 8 3 l 15 1

8.29 31 3 I 16 I

Tbtal with Iso. 161 53 37 262 - (513 )
Mean 8.47 2.79 1.95 13.79 ' ( 27.00)
Total less 150. 120 52 34 262 - (468 )
Mean 6.67 2.88 1.89 14.56 - ( 26.00)

 

aG 7 and P 20 are isolates. Ratings are here presented with the
isolates figured as part of the group and as the group appears
eithout them.

80

Table 11 presents the mean number of individuals for the K.I. and
S.I. and for the gross T.I. group who report sending communications to
others, and then, who report receiving communications from others.
Once again a very high degree of communication appears as it should
because both Table 10 and 11 contain esentially the same information.
Speaking for all of the T.I., we can see that the average number of
persons with whom there is communication is slightly more than 17 for
both sending communications to and receiving communications from.
However, when we consider the reported number of reciprocated highest
degree of communications, the K.I. average this kind of high degree
contact with almost 5 persons apiece while the S.I. report such com-
munication with slightly less than 2 individuals on the average.

Table 11 excludes the two isolates since we cannot speak in terms of a
group entity which includes those who are not part of the group.

The important thing to be gained from the discussion to this
point is that the power structure, because of its interconnectedness
emerges as a group, at least at the formal level. It now remains to
examine its composition at the informal level. Table 12 is comparable
to Table 10 in that it presents the gross amount of communication for
both the K.I. and the 5.1. However, Table 12 includes only the re-
ported communications at the Informal level. The same general con-
clusions that were made in the discussion of formal communication can
be made again here. It will be observed that mean scores for informal
communications are slightly higher than those for the formal level.
This is to be expected. It can also be noted that the evidence again
tends to support the contention that the K.I. communicate with more

people than the 5.1. and that they continue to receive generally more

81
TABLE 11.
COMMUNICATIONS SENT AND RECEIVED IN T.I. GROUPa

Formal Level

K.I. S.I. T.I.

 

Mean number of

individuals sending

communications to, '7'0 l7'5 I7-3
to any degree

(Sum of communica-

tions) (136) (314) (450)

Mean number of
individuals receiv-

ing any communication 18'9 16.5 l7°2
from
(Sum of communica-

tions) (151) (296) (447)

(n) (8) (18) (26)

Mean number of re-
ciprocated pairs of
high degree of com- “'50 1-61 2.50
munication (3-3)
(Sum of communica-

tion5) (36) (29) (65)
Mean number of re-
ciprocated pairs of
"no communication" 5'25 6'67 6'23

(0-0)

(Sum of communica-

tions) (8) (18) (26)

(n)

 

aTo send communications is here defined to refer to all interactions
that are encoded and transmitted verbally to a receiver. To receive
refers to the act of getting and decoding the communications from a

sender.

82
TABLE 12.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION PATTERNS IN THE T.I. GROUPa
10 Key Influentials

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highest
No Commun. Commun. Commun. Recip.

Person Commun. Sent Rec'd. Recip. Commun.

G l 7 3 O 17 6

G 2 4 l 2 20 9

R 3 ' ' ' ' -

B 4 7 O l 19 3

P 5 4 0 6 l7 4

C 6 2 4 3 18 3

G 7 24 O 3 O 0

B 8 6 2 l 18 6

P 9 5 2 3 l7 3

g 10 9 O 6 12 5

Total with Iso. 68 12 25 138 - (243 )
Mean 7.56 1.33 2.78 15.33 - ( 27.00)
Total less 150. 36 12 22 138 - (208 )
Mean 4.50 1.50 2.75, 17.25 - (726.00)

19 Secondary Influentigl§_

A ll 12 O 3 12 O

B 12 3 l 0 23 3

G 13 6 1 8 12 l

B 14 7 l 3 l6 1

G 15 14 l 2 10 4

P 16 l 6 2 18 1

C 17 8 8 0 ll 3

P 18 8 1 l 17 3

B 19 5 5 0 17 0

P 20 23 1 3 O O

B 21 5 3 1 l8 1

G 22 8 l 3 15 2

A 23 9 4 2 12 3

P 24 2 3 l 21 2

B 25 5 l 2 l9 1

A 26 10 3 3 ll 1

A 27 12 2 l 12 O

A 28 5 4 O 18 l

A_29 .5 3 2 17 2

Total with Iso. 148 49 37 279 - (513 )
Mean 7.79 2.58 1.95 14.70 - ( 27.02)
Total less 150. 107 48 34 279 - (468 )
Mean 5.94 2.6] 1.89_ 15.50 - (k26.00)

 

a6 7 and P 20 are isolates. Ratings are here presented with the
isolates figured as part of the group and as the group appears
without them.

83

communications on the average than they send. The opposite applies to
the 5.1. who seem to send more communications on the average than

they receive. There are at least two possibilities why this is so.
The first is that, as Hunter has reported, the top power people must
be open for communication flow from lower echelons. The second reason
why such a difference might occur is that while we found one case in
which a person challenged the T.I. group and possibly could have been
included therein, it only stands to reason that there are some persons
at the lowest power levels who quite possibly do not merit inclusion in
the power structure as it is being discussed in this report. These
figures, of whom there are few to be sure, quite possibly could in-
fluence the mean score for communications sent at the S.I. level.
While this is a dubious consideration, it is possibly a reason for the
disparity in score.

Table 13 says basically the same thing as Table 11. In that the
difference between the average reports for "no communication" is about
the same for both the K.I. and the 5.1., we can observe quite a dif-
ference in the respective average scores for reciprocated highest level
of communication. Here again, the K.I. report almost 5 high level com-
munications per person, while the S.I. report slightly less than 2 per
person.

Because of this apparent similarity in the formal and informal re-
ported communications, a Spearman rank correlation coefficient test was
made to see the correlation between the total responses for the formal
level and the total responses for the informal. This produced a coeffi-

cient of .85 which not only showed that such a correlation ranking could

84

not possibly happen by chance, but also that the two levels are almost

equal in the order of information that they contain.

TABLE 13.
COMMUNICATIONS SENT AND RECEIVED IN T.I. GROUPa

Informal_Level

 

 

K.I. S... T.I.
Mean number of
individuals sending
communications to, '8'8 '8'2 18°“
to any degree
(Sum of communica-
tIOOS) (150) (327) (477)
Mean number of
individuals re- 20 o 17 1+ '8 2
ceiving any communi- ' ° °
cation from
(Sum of communica-
tions) (160) (313) (477)
(n) (8) (18) (26)
Mean number of re-
ciprocated pairs of
high degree of com- “'88 1‘6] 2‘62
munication (3'3)
(Sum of communica-
tions) (39) (29) (68)
Mean number of re-
ciprocated pairs of
"no communication" 4‘50 5'94 5'50
(0-0)
(Sum of communica-
tions) (36) (107) (143)
(n) (8) (18) (26)

 

aT’o send communications is here defined to refer to all interactions

that are encoded and transmitted verbally to a receiver.

To receive

refers to the act of getting and decoding the communications from a

sender.

The consideration of the amount of written communication that

exists in the T.I. group produced almost opposite results from those

85

obtained in the face-to-face formal and informal contact. Table 14
demonstrates this point.' The K.I. report written communications with
an average number of almost 6 T.I. and the 5.1. report this kind of
contact with about 4 persons on the average. The K.I. write to pro-
portionally more people than the 5.1. It is also of interest to note
that the top two K.I. have the largest amount of reciprocated communi-
cation. On the other hand, the K.I. report less "no communication"
than the S.I. The difference in written communication sent and re-
ceived is slight for both groups even though a small difference can be
noted in that the K.I. send more written communications than they re-
ceive while the S.I. receive more written forms than they send. This
is not congruent with what we observed for the formal and informal
levels in which the K.I. received more than they sent and the S.I. sent
more communications than they received. However, the differences are
so slight that no concrete hypotheses can be proposed. We can only
suggest that these differences exist, note them, and make a few gen-
eralizations about them.

Having thus considered the T.I. from an over-all communication
point of view and having come to the conclusion that the intergroup
degree of communication is high even though face-to-face contacts are
more frequent than written contacts, it now becomes necessary to con-
sider the possible sub-groups within the larger whole. Hunter and
others have led us to believe that sub-cliques exist within the power
complex. To test for the existence of such groups, we began on the
assumption that people who would make up a clique would of the basic
nature of cliques, tend to communicate more with clique members than

with the remainder of the larger T.I. group. To this end, a

86

TABLE 14.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION PATTERNS IN THE T.I. GROUPa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Key Influentials
Highest
No Commun. Commun. Commun. Commun.

Person Commun. Sent Rec'd. Recip. Recip.

G l 6 8 O 13 5

G 2 S 6 I 15 h

R 3 ' ‘ ' ' '

B 4 14 O 5 8 O

P 5 17 I 1+ .5 O

C 6 8 4 7 8 O

G 7 26 O 1 O 0

B 8 7 ll 0 9 l

P 9 l6 0 11 0 O

G 10 13 3 1 10 4

Total 112 33 3O 68 - (243 )
Mean IZohh 3.67 3033 7056 ' ( 27.00)

19 Secondarx3lnfluentiglg

A 11 23 l l 2 O

B 12 12 O 15 O 0

G 13 12 O 8 7 l

B 14 15 0 12 O O

G 15 16 4 O 7 O

P 16 19 O 8 O O

C l7 l6 5 0 6 2

P 18 12 6 O 9 2

B 19 10 7 l 9 O

P 20 24 3 O O O

B 21 13 4 3 7 O

G 22 11 3 2 ll 4

A 23 17 5 2 3 l

P 24 7 ll 3 6 O

B 25 13 6 2 6 0

A 26 25 O 2 0 0

A 27 24 O 3 O 0

A 28 10 ll 1 5 O

A 29 22 O 5 O 0

Total 301 66 68 78 - (513 )
Mean 15.8“ 3.“? 3058 hall " ( 27.00)

 

aFor convenience, the isolates are included in all the tabulations

in this table.

87

"communogram" which appears as Figure 1, was constructed solely of the
reciprocated highest level "very much - very much" reports. This pro-
cedure showed that two definite clusters exist and that there is a
relatively higher degree of communication within them than with the
others of the other group or with the isolates. Figure 1 shows that
two sub-cliques exist and that each contains a “star" communicator, or
a person with more contacts than the rest of the individuals within
the clique. Yet, it will be noted that both clusters are connected.

P 24 and B 4 in this case serve the function as intermediaries or
"go-betweens." There are also certain persons who are isolated from
these two clusters at this level. G 7 and P 20, who are isolated at
all levels, have already been discussed as isolates. G 7 is a repre-
sentative of what we can call a "counter elite," one who would prefer
to replace the present power set-up. For this reason he is isolated
from the rest of the T.I. The case for P 20 is similar to that for

G 7. He, too, represents a "counter-elite" but not to the extent that
G 7 does. In other words, he has less power ascribed to him than does
G 7 even though he represents a rather strong minority group in the
country that would like to see itself in power and that often visual-
izes itself as having a great potential for power. These two cases
are literally isolated from the group when an examination is conducted
of the communication behavior of the T.I. even though we cannot iso-
late them from a discussion of power. It will be noted that A 11,

B 19, and A 27 are also isolated at the highest reciprocated level.
They were not isolated in the earlier discussion of gross communication
in the T.I. group, however. We need a somewhat finer measurement

of clique existence to see what roles they have.

.. ill I lilJIIII. . iiIIIIIl I i

88

FIGURE 1
FORMAL AND INFORMAL COMMUNICATION SUB-CLIQUE GROWINGS

GROUP A reciprocated both levels
@ - ---------- reclprocated, formal
-...... reciprocated, informal
isolates: G 7, A 27,
A 11, B 19, P 20

 

 

 

0 Q B 8
PERIPHERAL
CASES B 2'
B 25

 

GROUP B

 

89

The same is true for B 21 and B 25 who form a very small cluster
in themselves.

Due to the very high correlation between the formal and informal
communications, it was decided to include both levels in the "communo-
gram." The low degree of written made a consideration of these reports
unnecessary.

The question can now be asked as to why these two groups exist.
Are we dealing here with just a strange perchance happening in the
data, or is there some basis that justifies two clusters? The evidence
seems ample in support of the actual existence of such sUb-cliques.

In the first place, there is political evidence. The members of
"Cluster A” are members of the opposition party, and as such, view
politics with a more conservative eye. On the other hand, "Cluster B"
represents the in-power party and is more liberal in its political
philosophy. There are also economic or institutional grounds for the
existence of the two groups. As can be noticed from Table 15, "Clus-
ter A" contains more of the agricultural representatives in the power
structure while "Cluster B" is more professionally and governmentally
oriented. This possibly explains the phenomenon that we observed
earlier in examining the representational aspects of the various insti-
tutions when we noted that coffee and agriculture did not seem to have
the importance in the power structure that we might have expected. A
general survey of Figure 1 shows that on a percentage basis, "Clus-
ter B" has more general power than does "Cluster A."

In order that the isolates might be included and that we might
have a more substantial basis on which to support the existence of two

sub-groups, basing the plan on the results shown in Figure 1, namely,

90

the group assignment to "Cluster A," ”Cluster B," and to an ”Isolate”
group, the percentages of the possible in-group, out-group, and isolate
communications were figured. The results for the formal level of commu-
nication appear in Table 15 and those for the informal communications

appear in Table 16.

       

 

TABLE 15.
FORMAL SUB-CLIQUES IN THE T.I. GROUPa

Pct. of Pct. of Pct. of

Possible Possible Possible Group

Commun. Commun. Commun. Designa-
Pers_____ ._ . - Gr 3 .35.... tion
G 7 5% 0% 0% Isolate
A 27 43% 7% 19% - Group A
B 8 94% 19% 33% Group A
A 23 67% 19% 30% Group A
A 29 50% 15% 40% Group A
A 26 36% 11% 27% Group A
C 6 72% 22% 20% Group A
A ll 36% 11% 27% Group A
P 9 67% 26% 26% Group A
A 28 53% 22% 43% Inter. A
B 21 45% 28% 25% Inter. A
B 14 52% 35% 28% Inter. A
B 19 48% 33% 25% Inter. A
P 24 64% 50% 35% Inter. A-B
B 4 56% 46% 33% Inter. A-B
P 16 40% 47%. 31% Inter. B-A
B 12 48% 64% 33% Inter. B
G 22 33% 61% 9% Group B
G 2 43% 85% 28% Group B
G 13 29% 62%. 17% Group B
B 25 21% 46% 21% Group B
G l 26% 82% 24% Group B
P 5 24% 74% 6% Group B
C 17 17% 55% 9% Group B
G 10 21% 76% 6% Group B
P 18 14% 71% 13% Group B
G 15 7% 62% 6% Group B
P 20 0% 6% 0% Isolate
a

 

The persons are ranked by the ratio of their inter-clique communica-
tion scores. If the score for the other two groups added up to about
the same or less than the score for one group, the individual was con-
sidered as a member of that group. If it were debatable, he was con-
sidered as an intermediary. R 3 is not included due to insufficient
data.

91

TABLE 16.

INFORMAL SUB-CLIQUES IN THE T.I. GROUPa

 

 

Pct. of Pct. of Pct. of

Possible Possible Possible Group

Commun. Commun. Commun. Designa-
Person Grp. A Grp. B Isolates tion
G 7 '6% 0% 0% Isolate
A 27 48% 8% 11% Group A
B 8 90% 19% 31% Group A
A 23 58% 19% 26% Group A
A 29 58% 18%. 38% Group A
A 26 44% 10% 19% Group A
C 6 73% 28% 31% Group A
A 11 43% 11% 11% Group A
P 9 63% 26% 31% Group A'
A 28 56% 28% 45% Inter. A
B 21 52% 38% 36% Inter. A
B 14 44% 30% 33% Inter. A
B 19 44% 33% 31% Inter. A
P 24 58% 56% 36% Inter. A-B
B 4 52% 50% 29% Inter. A-B
P 16 39% 44% 40% Inter. B
B 12 46% 64% 40% Inter. B
G 22 30% 58% 19% Group B
G 2 39% 86% 29% Group B
G 13 24% 64% 19% Group B
B 25 32% 58% 28% Group B
G 1 26% 82% 24% Group B
P 5 28% 73% 17% (Group B
C 17 15% 61% 7% Group B
G 10 22% 73% 7% GrouP B
P 18 20% 71% 22% Group B
G 15 4% 61% 7% Group B
P 20 0% 6% 0% Isolate

 

aThe persons are ranked by the ratio of their inter-clique communica-
tion scores. If the score for the other two groups added up to about
the same or less than the score for one group, the individual was
considered as a member of that group. If it were debatable, he was
considered as an intermediary. R 3 is not included due to insuffi-

cient data.

From this consideration, we can observe that G 7 is still an
isolate, but that if he had to be assigned to a sub-group, we have only

a Slight basis for placing him in Group A. P 20, on the other hand,

would tend toward Group B. The rest of the isolates, it will be noted,

92

generally tend toward Group A. From Tables 15 and 16, we can see that
the two clusters still exist, but there is quite a sizeable group of
intermediaries who link them one to the other. These "links" made it
possible for messages to flow from group to group if necessary. 8 4
is one of these intermediaries who has achieved a high degree of gen-
eral community power. He stands alone as being the sole example of

a power figure who can move more or less freely between the groups.
This is made possible because of the substantial wealth and interests
of this individual who serves both groups and who appears to bring a
certain degree of balance or stability in the way they operate.. Once
more, we can see that Group A is composed primarily of agricultural
interests while the intermediaries are generally businessmen and
Group B contains more government and political figures than any other
community sector.

Before concluding this discussion, there is another question that
can be raised. From the general way that the material has been pre-
sented, we should say something about the relationship that exists of
power to communication. In other words, are the most powerful in-
dividuals the "star" Communicators? To attempt an answer to this im-
portant question, a Spearman rank Correlation was made between the
power synthesis rank and the rank made of the highest to the lowest
degree of persons reporting communication at the formal level. This
second rank was based on the person's percentages of communication fre-
quency with Groups A and B and with the Isolate group. A coefficient
of .55 was produced which is significant at the .01 level of proba-
bility. This means that there is a relationship between the amount

of power that is ascribed to a person and his over-all amount of

93

formal communication. The same procedure was repeated with the re-
sults from the informal level of communication. A coefficient of .47
was produced which supports the finding from the previous correlation.
A general review of Tables 10, ll, 12, and 13 will show that the
K.I. tend to have higher communication mean scores than the S.I. To
test this further a comparison was made between the top ten communica-
tors and the K.I. So that an equal number of cases might be had, R 3
and G 7, because of insufficient information were omitted and the
next two power figures were moved up to K.I. position. A further step
was to combine both the formal and informal levels of communication so
that the top communicators at both levels might be included in the com-

parison. This data appears in Table 17.

 

 

TABLE 17.
COMPARISON OF K.I.a AND TOP TEN COMMUNICATORSb

Top Ten Top Ten
K.I. Formal Informal Top Ten
Person Level Pct. Level Pct. Total Pct.
G 1 YES YES YES
G 2 YES YES YES
8 4 YES YES YES
P 5 YES YES YES
C 6 N0 . YES 0 YES .
B 8 YES 70/" YES 70" YES 80/"
P 9 NO NO NO
G 10 YES NO YES
A 11 NO NO NO
8 12, YES YES YES
Total 7 7 8 (n=10)

 

aR 3 and G 7 are omitted because of insufficient data and the next two
5.1. are moved up to K.I. position.

bCommunication scores are based on the percentages of possible communi-
cations with Group A, Group B, and with the isolates at the formal
and informal levels.

94

This procedure showed that 8 of the K.I. out of 10 are the top
communicators, and that the top 4 K.I. are also the top four communi-
cators when we consider the over-all individual communication scores
produced from all the reports at the formal and informal levels. A Chi
Square test of the 26 remaining T.I. reveals that the null hypothesis
can be rejected with a probability factor of one-in-a-thousand.

There then is a definite correlation between the amount of gen-
eral community power that a person possesses and his amount of general
communication. This stands to reason when we remember as has been
SUggested, that influential people must communicate their influence to
others.

In this section we have discussed the communication patterns of
the T.I. We have shown that the degree of communication is high at
both the formal and informal levels and that the group as a whole tends
to see each other face-to-face rather than write messages to one an-
other. We have supported the contention that two sub-groups or commu-
nication cliques exist within the framework of the power complex which
in turn leads us to reject the proposition that the power structure
is a monolithic or pyramid-like structure in View of the broader defi-
nition that it is more pluralistic. Such a consideration becomes even
more clear when we remember that the K.I. are composed of representa-
tives from both sub-cliques having almost equal representation. We
have also given support to the proposition that there is a relationship
between the amount of communication that an individual has and his over-

all power score maintaining that the K.I. are by and large the most

95

communicative of all the T.I. With this, we now turn to a comparative
consideration of this study of general community power in San Jose,

Costa Rica.
General Comparisons

The question can now be raised as to how similar the results of
the present study are to studies made in other communities. This is an
important question because as Miller, Form, D'Antonio, and others have
shown, comparative material is needed before meaningful interpreta-
tions can be made in any discussion of community power.‘ The first
task of the community researcher studying power in a community is to
locate that power. Once he has located it, he then attempts to char-
acterize it. After this descriptive analysis is made, then compari-
sons with other studies can help to interpret a particular set of
results.

In comparing the results of the San José study, we will refer
principally to those studies cited earlier. This will be done because
such studies are adaptable to the considerations of this particular
project, especially from a methodological point of view. 0f general
interest to us will be the power structures as they have been shown
to exist in Regional City studied by Hunter, and in Pacific and Eng-
lish cities, described by Miller. Of even greater interest will be
the results of the studies made by Form, D'Antonio, Erickson, and
others in the border communities of Mexico and in the southwestern
part of the United States.2

Let us first consider the general composition of the T.I. group.

Even though women do occasionally appear as members of influential

96

groups, the members of most power structures studied to date are men.3
This occurrence tends to obtain for both United States communities and
those of other countries.

It can also be added that the men who compose the power complex
tend to be older in age, ranging from about 45 to 55. This might sug-
gest that time is needed in order for such persons to "rise to power"
as Hunter leads us to believe when he shows that certain members of
Regional City's elite worked themselves "up from the bottom."u Table H3
shows the comparative ages of the influentials in El Paso, C. Juarez,
and San Jose. All three cities Show that T.I. are around 50 years of

age with those in San Jose being a few years younger than this on the

 

 

 

average.
TABLE 18.
EDUCATION AND AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE
INFLUENTIALS IN THREE CITIESa
El Paso C. Juarez San Joseb
Education
(median years) 16.3 12.0 16.0 (16.0)
Age (mean years) 50.6 52.3 47.7 (48.7)
(n) 57 59 I3 (27)

 

aCalculated from: Form and D'Antonio, American Sociological Review,
24, No. 6, 808. It will be noted that Form and D'Antonio studied only
the business and political influentials. The above figures are based
on the mean result derived from the scores of both influential groups.

bThe scores for San Jose persons are based on the results of business

and politics only. The score in parenthesis represents the total T.I.
result. The difference is negligible.

As can also be noted from the data in Table 18, the educational

level of the T.I. in these three studies, is quite uniformly high.

97

Many influentials have completed high school and have gone on to earn
college or advanced degrees. The United States city of El Paso is com-
parable to San Jose in this respect while the Mexican city of C. Juarez
shows 12 years of education for its business and political influen-
tials.

Several Studies from which results are attainable have demon-
strated that influentials maintain voluntary associations.5 Miller
showed that the 12 K.I. in Pacific City held memberships in one or more
of 23 organizations and that there were 94 instances in which their
memberships overlapped.6 We have previously seen the same general
pattern in the T.I. of San Jose.7 Influentials, in short, tend to
have organizational contacts which put them in the principal flows of
formal as well as informal communication not only with the groups to
which they are directly related but also to other groups representative
of different interests.

By way of summary, San Jose influentials follow the generally ob-
served pattern of the characteristics of T.I. They are older men,
who have a high degree of education and maintain memberships with volun-
tary organizations.

Another aspect of the men who compose the community power struc-
ture, especially in the United States, is that they tend to be repre-
sentative of business and industry. This can be observed in Table 19
in which the K.I. of Pacific City and Regional City in the United
States are compared to English City in Europe and San Jose in Latin
America. It will be noted that the two North American cities have a
substantial representation of business while the over-seas cities have

a much smaller representation of this community sector.9

98

TABLE 19.

COMPARISON OF BUSINESS REPRESENTATION AMONG
K.I. AS SELECTED BY T.I. AND RANKED BY
STATUS AS INFLUENTIAL POLICY MAKERSa

 

Pacific Regional English San Joseb
City City City City

1. Business 1. Business 1. Labor 1. Politics
2. Business 2. Business 2. Education 2. Politics
3. Business 3. Profess. 3. Business 3. Religion
4. Business 4. Politics 4. Religion 4. Religion
5. Bus. (woman) 5. Business 5. Business 5. Profess..
6. Education 6. Business 6. Politics 6. Commun.
7. Business 7. Business 7. Education 7. Politics
8. Business 8. Business 8. Business 8. Business
9. Business 9. Business 9. Labor 9. Profess.
10. Religion 10. Profess. 10. Civic (w) 10. Politics
11. Politics 11. Business 11. Profess. ll. Agricul.
12. Profess. 12. Business 12. Society 12. Business

 

Business Representation

67% 75% 25% 25%

 

8The information for Pacific, English, and Regional cities was cal-
culated from the results reported in Miller, American Sociological
Review, 23, No. 1, 12.

bFor purposes of comparison, the number of K.I. used in this list was
lengthened to include twelve instead of the usual ten.

Nevertheless, Table 20 shows that when we consider the total T.I.
group, business is substantially represented in the four communities
even though it will be noted that San Jose still has the least repre-
sentation of business per se. However, we would suggest that the
disparity is not as great as it appears to be. From a sociological
viewpoint, "business" can be defined in terms of what the people in a

community do for a living. In Costa Rica coffee production serves

much the same function as manufacturing does for Regional City.

99

TABLE 20.

COMPARISON OF FOUR COMMUNITY TOP INFLUENTIAL
GROUPS BY INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONa

 

 

 

Pacific Regional English San José
Institution City City City City
affiliation (n=44) (n=40) (n=32) (n=29)
Per cent Per cent Per cent Per cent
Business 33 58 34 24
Government 17 5 9 24
Professionags 12 15 13 21
Agriculture -- -- -- 21
Education 10 5 9 0
Labor 14 5 l9 0
Religion 7 0 9 3
Society 0 12 7 O
Welfare-cultural
leaders b 7 0 0 0
Communications -- -- -- 7
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%

 

aMiller, American Sociological Review, 23, No. 1, ll.

bMiller did not include "Agriculture" and "Communications" in his com-

parative listings. While it is possible that he included these sec-
tors under another heading, they are entered here as separate divi-
SIonS.

It is also erroneous to think of the San Jose influential who is
in coffee in terms of a small farm producer. He is the owner of large
plantations who runs processing equipment and who exports his product.
In other words, coffee is the "business” of Costa Rica. Thus we can
speak in terms of a “business" representation in the power complex of
San Jose as about 45 per cent of the total. This helps us to interpret
the result more clearly.

To provide a somewhat wider scope of comparison, Table 21 was con-

structed. It shows the institutional affiliation of the border and

IOO

southwestern cities of Denver, San Diego, El Paso, Tucson, Las Cruces,
C. Juarez, Tijuana, and San José. This comparison shows that San José
appears to have the least percentage of its T.I. in business while it
has a far greater percentage in agriculture which again reflects the
country's economic dependency on coffee. It is also of interest to
note that the Latin American cities have a greater representation of
T.I. in government than other communities. San Jose also shows that a
greater percentage of its influentials are professionals. This is
possibly, though not totally due to the great cultural emphasis placed
on the medical and law professions in the community.

Table 21 offers support for Miller's contention that business
does tend to be the most widely represented in the power structure.
We can also note that government is to be found in the power complex,
too, especially in Latin American cities. The power complex also tends
to have a substantial representation of professionals even though
San Jose appears to have a greater than usual representation.l0

"Communications," which refers to newspapers, radio, television,
and the like, also is generally represented from T.I. group to T.I.
group. The result for San Jose is about what is found to exist in
the other communities.

The educational sector also receives general representation in
community power structure. Somewhat surprisingly, there seems to
be a lack of T.I. who are in education in San Jose. While Costa Rica
puts a large portion of its national income into education, no person
with education as a primary designation emerged in the T.I. group.

There was, however, one case of a T.I. who mentioned education as a

secondary designation. In Latin America, many educators are in

101

reality professional people who teach part-time. There are four T.I.
who teach part-time. Although education does not seem to be repre-
sented in the T.I. group, it must be granted that it does appear in-
directly. (See Table 5.)

"Labor" and "society" appear to have much the same degree of
representation being found in about half of the cities compared. In
San Jose, labor is neither well-developed nor organized. While there
is a "high society” in the community, it does not seem to be very ar-
ticulate on community issues. Those members who do take an interest
in community projects and problems have other positions or roles in
the community than just their distinction as a member of the social
elite.

Another somewhat more specific way of considering the same data
is to survey the various occupational distinctions that exist from
influence system to influence system. Table 22 shows the K.I. of the
several communities which we have been comparing and their occupa-
tional identities. Business is well represented as can be expected.
0n the other hand, government is most strongly represented in the
Latin American communities, particularly in C. Juarez and San Jose.
This can be partly explained by noting the strong political centers
in these two communities. The former is a strong center for the PR1
party in Mexico, and San Jose is the seat of national government for
Costa Rica.

In considering the various T.I. groups, we can observe that every
community except Tijuana has a representation of professionals, namely,
lawyers, educators, and religious workers. While data is not available

for Pacific, Regional, and English cities for the communication sector,

102

 

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103

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104

six of the studies revealed the presence of such interests. It might
be that T.I. with primary or secondary designations in communications
were found in the three former studies and included under the general
category of business. Only Las Cruces and San Jose have a representa-
tion of agriculture in the K.I. group, and labor is generally not
represented.

When we account for the disparity between the high degree of
business representation in the other communities and a lower product
for San Jose, we are faced with the fact that San Jose is not far
removed from what has been found to exist in other cities. We must
grant in this instance that agriculture is a very real "business" in
Costa Rica and that while the general results show a lower business
representation, this is compensated for in the higher degree of agri-
culture representation in the T.I. group.

In other words, when a method that was originally applied to
United States communities is adapted to a Latin American community,
the final product does not depart greatly from the patterns of other
communities.

We have been discussing the composition of the influential group
by comparing various studies. It is now desirable to look at com-
parative data concerning the image that influentials have of power.
It will be recalled that four questions testing this perception were
used in the San Jose study. Originally developed by William H. Form
and Warren L. Sauer,ll the questions were also used by Thomas R. Dye
in order to compare what the residents of various communities per-
ceived the power role to be as compared to public officials in the

. . 12
same communItIes.

105

Most salient of the findings of Dye was the general perceptive
disagreement between the view that the general public had of power and
that held by public officials, the group that is more comparable to
the influentials of San Jose. The public supported an elite rather
than a pluralistic group of decision-makers while the public officials

'3 As to the degree

said that no small group makes the big decisions.
that the organization influences decision-making, Dye found that the
officials felt that they were generally free to act without approval
while the public took the opposite view.18 When questioned about
the openness or secretiveness of decision-making, the residents gen-
erally perceived it as a private or secret process while the public
officials maintained that it was open to public view.'5 The public
gave only the barest majority to the question which asked if the de-
cision-makers acted out of a broad sense of community responsibility,
while the officials overwhelmingly saw decision-maker actions as based
on this broad view as Opposed to a narrow more ego-centric view.16

In short, Dye's public officials said that there was no small
clique that decided important issues and that decision-makers changed
from issue to issue. They did not feel dominated by the organization;
and they firmly believed that decisions were made openly and that
decision-makers are motivated by a strong sense of community respon-
sibility. These results are similar to those received from the use
of the same set of questions in San Jose. The only difference in the
result was that San Jose influentials believe that it depends on the
issue, the situation, or the person as to whether or not the decision-

maker has a broad sense of community responsibility. Aside from this,

we can observe that both groups give support to a socially acceptable

106

view of power, while the general public generally supports the findings
of the power studies.

Form and Sauer used these same questions to check labor's image of
power. In order to compare the two sets of responses, Table 23 has
been made. Once again, there was a substantial amount of disagreement
for all the items except that concerning the degree to which decision-
making is open to public view. But even here the direction of the dif-
ference between labor and San Jose influentials is the same as that
which we would expect from Dye's results.

Having considered the members of the power structures and their
general perceptions of power, it now remains to end with a discussion
of cliques within community power structures. A general survey of the
literature will lead one to the conclusion that cliques do exist al-
though the degree of power they have within the total power structure
can be questioned. Klapp and Padgettl7 found an important clique of
businessmen in Tijuana, Mexico, which played the role of Spearhead even
though it did not always get enough support from other T.I. to obtain
its goals. Hunter, in Regional City, describes a pattern of 21 clique
relationships as they exist among his "top forty“ influentials. The
most obvious of the groupings were referred to as "crowds" and each had
its leader. Hunter also found that "several of the top leaders within
the crowds would clear with each other informally on many matters.

Each man at the top of a crowd pyramid depended upon those close to him
in business to carry out decisions when made."18 Hunter, Schaffer, and
Sheps state that Salem, Massachusetts, presented a pyramid of power

dominated by business and industrial cliques with clique leaders.I

107

TABLE 23.

POWER PERCEPTIONS OF LABOR AND SAN JOSE T.I.a

 

 

 

U.S. San Jose
Labor T.I.
1. In your opinion, do you feel that the
big community decisions tend to be Per cent
made by the same small group of people
or do these people change according to
the issue before the community?
Same group ' 67 4
Group changes 23 92
Other 10
100 100
2. Do the people who make important com-
munity decisions do this on their own
or do they have to get approval for
their actions from the organization to
which they belong?
Can act for self 21 52
Must get approval 74 22
Other 5 26
100 100
3. Are important issues usually solved
privately or are they usually brought
out in the Open?
Made public 43 67
Depends on issues 31 33
Resolved privately 18 O
Other 8 O
100 100
4. Do you feel that the people involved
in making big decisions have a broad
sense of community responsibility or
are they more interested in protect-
ing or furthering their own interests?
Broad responsibility 46 30
Further own interests 23 7
Depends 31 63
100 100

 

aForm and Sauer, Social Forces, 38, No. 4, Table 3, p. 339.

Miller used varied techniques in an attempt to locate cliques in

Pacific City and reported from his results that "there is no 'crowd'

108

pattern in Pacific City and in English City such as Hunter reports for
Southern (Regional) City."20 On the other hand, Miller does report
that there are relatively stable groups of leaders who are identified
with certain institutional sectors and that there is solidarity among
the key influentials who come together from time to time to make de-
cisions.21

In short, the literature suggests that there is some difficulty
in locating cliques. Some have been successful in finding them, others
not. We would suggest that the method employed in San Jose be tested
in further community studies as a simple device for locating, charac-
terizing, and comparing clique structures within power complexes. We
can only submit that communication cliques were found to exist in San
José.

In conclusion, it can be seen from this comparative section that
the power structure of San Jose is not a stark departure from what
researchers have been finding for other communities. Realizing that
the community is its biggest variable, we find that differences exist,
but there seems to be a core of Similarity which can be seen from
study to study in communities which will make developing theory about

power structures in communities more understandable than it has been

to date.

10.

‘I.

12.

13.
14.

NOTES

 

CHAPTER 111
Miller, American Sociological Review, 23, No. 1; Form and
D'Antonio, American Sociological Review, 24, No. 6.
D'Antonio and Others, American Sociological Review, 26, No. 3.
Miller, American Sociological Review, 23, No. 1, Table 2, p. 12.
Hunter, 28-29.
151g,, Figure 7, p. 87.

Miller, The American Journal of Sociology, 64, No. 3, Table 2,
p. 304.

See Table 9, p. 75.
Hunter, 107.

See Miller, American Sociological Review, 23, No. 1, 13. He pre-
sents two reasons why the disparity between Pacific and English
cities exists: "The first is difference in occupational prestige
between the United States and England." And, "a second is the
structure of city government." There is always the possibility
of community variation which would cause a difference in the
degree of the representation of the various sectors.

See D'Antonio and Others, American Sociological Review, 26, No. 3,
446. It is suggested that possibly the lawyer is emerging as a
link in the power structure between business and the other
sectors. '

Form and Sauer, Social Forces, 38, No. 4.

Thomas R. Dye, "Popular Images of Decision-Making in Suburban
Communities," Socioloqy and Social Research, 47, No. 1 (October,
1962).

lbid., Table 2, 78.

lbid., Table 3, 80.

109

15.

l6.
l7.

18.

19.

20.

2].

110

There is a marked disagreement between what Table 4 reports and
the text of Dye's report. Feeling that a typographical error
had been made, the data explained in his text was used. See:
lbid., Table 4, 80-81.

lbid., Table 5, 82.

Klapp and Padgett, The American Journal of Socioloqy, 65, No. 4,
403.

Hunter, 79.

Floyd Hunter, Ruth G. Schaffer, and Cecil G. Sheps, Community
Organization: Action and lnaction (Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 1956), 413-417.

Miller, The American Journal of Sociology, 64, No. 3, 306.

lbid.

SUMMARY

In the first chapter we saw that there is no objective evidence
from history that we should expect a power structure in communities
such as San Jose. One of the greatest considerations of history has
been power. Moreover, the history of Costa Rica reveals that even
though the country did not begin with what we generally see for
Latin America, it evolved its own power groups and institutional
sources of power. In other words, from Costa Rican history we see that
politics has come to center around a powerful individual and that cer-
tain interests can almost be expected to be found in the power struc-
ture. Among these is coffee, government service, agriculture, and
the professions in law, medicine, and education.

With this as background, we could define our basic purpose of
this study which was to locate the power structure in the capital city
of San Jose. We were also interested in describing the inter-group
communication behaviors of the influentials in order to see if it was
possible to speak in terms of a structure of power in the community.

The following method was used:

1. Data was collected through interviews with knowledge-

ables, people who know the community, which produced
a list of the top influentials.

2. From questionnaires presented to the T.l., further

data was obtained which gave:
a. Demographic characteristics of the group;

b. Measures of formal, informal, and written communication;
111

112

c. Measures of general community influence;
d. Measures of influence on two specific community
problems.

3. Data from oral questions asked of the T.I. informants pro-

duced personal estimates of power for influentials.

Through the use of this method, it was found that a community power
structure exists in the city of San Jose which is composed of older,
well-educated men who are primarily representative of government,
agriculture, business, and professional interests in the community.

By means of the “power synthesis" technique which was a score based

on the answers to the open-ended question, the questionnaire influence
rank, and the two community problems it was found that not all commun-
ity leaders share the same degree of general power. Because of this,
it was possible to distinguish between those who had more power who
were called key influentials and those who had secondary degrees of
power. No one individual emerged who was found to completely "run the
city."

The method also disclosed that there is a high degree of communi-
cation,within the power complex. The T.I. maintain memberships in
organizations which facilitate this. While the flow of this communi-
cation is general, there are two sub-groups or cliques existent within
the power structure. One can be referred to as the “in" clique and
the other as the "out" clique because one is representative of the
party in power and the other represents the opposition party. To
the former, more community influence is ascribed, to the latter, less.

These two sub-cliques are firmly connected, however, by intermediaries

113

who are in positions to keep the channels of communication so that
messages can pass freely between the two groups.

The key influentials are by and large the people who have the
highest degree of inter-group communication. The top four K.I. are
also the top four communicators when the total communication scores
are combined. The key influentials are also representative of both
sub-groups. There are four K.I. from each group and another is an
intermediary. One of the K.I. is an isolate who is representative of
a counter elite. The K.I. group also tends to be representative of
practically all of the primary community sectors.

Through a comparison of San Jose to other communities already
studied, it was learned that even though it is in Latin America and a
capital city, San Jose was not remarkably different from the other
communities. The greatest difference was in the representation that
business had in the T.I. group. However, when we combined the business
sector with that of agriculture, we saw that there was little, if any,
difference. Agriculture was combined with business because, it will
be remembered, coffee j§_the business of Costa Rica.

By comparison we also learned that influentials tend to perceive
their power role through a socially approved position while the gen-
eral public tends to perceive just the opposite view. Influentials in
San José perceive themselves as relatively Influential, but they also
maintain that no small single group makes all the important community
decisions, nor that decision-makers seek to satisfy their own interests
nor that decision-making is done privately.

Because of the high degree of inter-group communication, we can

conclude that the T.I. in San Jose constitute a group complete with

114

cliques and intermediaries. We can also see that there is a broad
representation of the primary community sectors in the power structure,
and that the characteristics of the power elite in San Jose are similar
to those of other community elite groups Studied in the same manner.

In conclusion, we would like to suggest several possibilities for
future research using the reputational technique. Since this is the
first study to examine fully the communication behaviors of the T.I.,
we would suggest that this same method be used again and in various
parts of the civilized world. We still have much to learn about how
the decision-making process works in cross-cultural environments. We
would also suggest that further research be done on the perceptions of
influentials. One of the important considerations of this study has
been to examine such perceptions. It seems important to this kind of
research to know with some degree of accuracy just how much the an-
swers of the respondents are colored by their images of power and power
people. We still have a long way to come before the reputational
method will be acceptable to everyone as a tool for community research.
This paper has tried to outline one such improvement. It is hoped
that future research will unfold even more of the several "mysteries"
that are power so that we will know without doubt exactly what it is

that we are testing and slowly but surely discovering in the community.

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