Edward C. Banfield, Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

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Edward C. Banfield Political Influence: A New Theory of

Urban Politics (New York: The Free Press, 1961/1965).

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POLITICAL INFLUENCE

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Political

Influence

BY EDWARD C. BANFIELD

l!iJTHE FREE PRESS New York

COLLIER-MACMILLAN LIMITED London



Preface

Third printing December 1968

LIS study was financed by the Governmental AffairsFoundation with funds from the Edgar B. Stem Family Fund, Thesponsors gave the author the utmost freedom in the formulation ofthe problem and in the design and execution of the research. Their

only requirement was that it delineate political realities influ-ence" was the key category which should be taken into accountby anyone seeking to bring about an improvement in the structureof government in the metropolitan area of Chicago, With a very fewexceptions, proposals for metropolitan reorganization have failed

to win acceptance in the United States. A better Uliderstanding ofthe workings of influence in the metropolitan areas, the sponsorsreasoned, might lead to sounder and more feasible proposals forreform. It was not a part of the author s task to propose any re-forms, however, or even to suggest the tactics that reformers shouldfollow in Chicago. While the author sincerely hopes that the spon-

sors' purposes are served by the study, these were not the onlyones he had in mind in making the study.

Peter B. Clark is the principal author of Chapter 5

The Fort

Dearborn Project." Interviews collected by him have been usedin other chapters as well, and a general debt is owed him foradvice and criticism.

Dr. Luther Gulick, president of the Public Administration Insti-tute, and Professor Norton E. Long, now of Northwestern Uni-

versity, initiated the study and have encouraged and stimulated itin many ways. Warm thanks are due them both.

Copyright (Q) 1961 by The Free Press , A Corporation

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted inany form or by any means , electronic or mechanical , including photocopying,recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without per-

mission in writing from the Publisher.

Collier-Macmillan Canada, Ltd. , Toronto, Ontario

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60- 12182

FIRST FREE PRESS PAPERBACK EDITION 1965



Preface

Acknowledgement and appreciation are also due two students

Miss Mary Cahn and Robert F. Stout , who ~ssisted in the inter-

viewing, and several friends and colleagues who read part or all

of the manuscript. Professors Gilbert Y. Steiner. of the University

of Illinois , and Grant McConnell, Herbert J. Storing, and James

Q. Wilson, of the University of Chicago, made many valuablesuggestions. Professors Richard Meier, of the University of Michi-

gan, and Walter Isard, of the University of Pennsylvania , com-

mented helpfully on Chapter 11 , as did Professors Jerome Rothen-

berg, of the University of Chicago, and Charles E. Lindblom, of

Yale University, on the first draft of Chapter 12. Myoid friend

and collaborator, Martin Meyerson, who got me interested in

urban affairs in the first place , was a lively and provocative critic

and the Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Insti-

tute of Technology and Harvard University, of which he is Direc-tor, made its facilities available generously in the final stages of

the work.

Contents

CHAPTER

Introduction

The Branch Hospital, . .

The Welfare Merger ..........,...

The Chicago Transit Authority

The Fort Dearborn Project. . .

The Chicago Campus

The ExhibitionHall...............

II.

10.

The Structure of Influence. . . . . .

The Process of Influence. . . .

The Mythology of Influence

III.

11.

12.

Concerting Action by Influence

Influence and the Public Interest

Index .........,...." ..,...... 351

Map of Chicago, Illinois. . . . . . . , . . . .. 356- 357

PAGE

126

159

190

235

263

286

307

324



POLITICAL INFLUENCE



Introduction

1:, is a 'tud of the way influence works in a large~ml".ric;m cit . Its purpose is two : to escn e an ana

an urban olitical s stem in one of its aspects and to contribute

to the theoretical understanding of influence in olitical settin,gf all kinds.B influen7: " is meant abilit to et others to act, think, or

fee as one intends. l A mayor who persuades voters to approve

ond issue exercises influence. A businessman whose promisesof support induce a mayor to take action exercises influence. A

precinct captain who controls votes by doing favors exercises in-

fluence. A department head who improves the morale of his sub-ordinates exercises influence.

To concert activity for any purpose to arrange a picnic, build

a building, or pass an ordinance, for example - a more or less

elaborate system of influence must be created: the appropriate

people must be persuaded , deceived, coerced ' inveigled, or other-

wise induced to do what is required of them. Any co-operativeactivity - and so any organization, formal or informal , ephemeral

or lasting - may be viewed as a system of influence.2 This is as

true of the co-operative activity called government as of any other.G.Qvernment from this standpoint, consists of acts of ~~uen~

acts which proceed from many quarters (e. , the businessman as

well as the mayor) and which produce their effect in many ways











POLITICAL INFLUENCE

as boss of the Chicago Democratic machine is a skillful politician!)

But apart from this, the role itself, if it is a well-established oneis likely to have a good deal of skill built into it: ways of doingthings that have proved functional will have been institutionalizedin the role so that even an inept incumbent - one who could not

himself devise a rational strategy - may act "intelligently" merelyby doing what he is "supposed" to do.

This interest in describing the strategy that would be followed byskillful role-players and, more generally, in describing what isnormal and typical, necessarily entails a sacrifice of realism. Somereaders will feel that the analytical chapters oversimplify the cases.These readers may also find that some of the case material doesnot altogether tally with the generalizations that are made, andthey will probably wonder why no effort is made to explain and

account for exceptions to the general rules.The justification for this lack of realism is that it is the aim

of science to simplify, and that what is from one standpoint simpli-fication is necessarily oversimplification from another standpoint.For example, the generalization is made (in Chapter 9) that civiccontroversies in Chicago arise out of the maintenance and en-

hancement needs of large formal organizations. To one who wantsto predict behavior, this may b~ "a useful simplification" becauseit economizes effort by directing attention to one variable instead

of many. But to one who wants to "understand the situation inits complexity," the statement is a "gross oversimplification" be-cause it leaves out of account much that common sense suggests

ought to be taken into account.

PART I



The Bran ch Hospital

'W;H 3 400 beds, the Cook County Hospital was

said to be the biggest in the world. Big as it was , it was over-

crowded In some wards beds were only a foot apart , and in others

they overflowed into the corridors. The obstetrical ward, designed

for 6 000 babies a year , actually had 16 000, which meant that

normally, a mother could spend only two days in the hospital.

This was the situation late in 1954 when Daniel Ryan, presi-

dent of the Cook County Board, announced that the voters wouldsoon be asked to approve a bond issue to finance an 800-bed

addition to the hospital and other improvements.

Everyone agreed that the county hospital should be enlarged

and improved. In the dispute that quickly arose, the issue was

where the new facilities should be located. Ryan proposed addingto the existing hospital, which was centrally located on the WestSide. This would increase the number of patients there very littlebut by spreading them over a greater space it would relieve over-

crowding. He recognized that the West Side hospital was notconvenient to the fast-growing South Side , some parts of which

were as much as two hours away. To mitigate this, he proposed

building on the South Side an emergency hospital of not more than100 beds and an outpatient clinic. Southsiders ' who needed some-

thing more would have to travel to the improved West Side hos-

pital. Those who opposed this plan felt that the West Side hospital













































































POLITICAL INFLUENCE

in his seat voted for the bill, Three Democrats joined the Re ubli- ;

, ......., . -



cans, wo of these had run ' thsupport The th' d

e prImarIes without organization

If was an old man who confided that he had frelatives t)ll the Governor

s payroll,

our

The Chicago

Authority

Transit

SOMETHING had to be done about the Chicago

Transit Authority (CTA), Like mass transit systems everywhere

it was in financial trouble, Created in 1947 as a municipalcor-

poration after many failures of private enterprises, it had managed

to keep its head above water for nearly ten years; during this

period, it had made principal and interest payments, on its bonds

and had invested a huge sum in modernization ofequipment. In

1956 , however. a deficit was in prospect, and a larger one could

be expected every yearthereafter, Improvement of the system

was urgently needed especially extension of rapid transit lines

and installation of safety devices - but, as matters stood , it was

barely meeting its operating expenses and wasaccumulating no

reserves against depreciation.

About a million persons rode CTA twice eachworkday. Forty

per cent of these went from the outlying parts ofChicago to the

central business district to work or to shop. (About half of the

800 000 people who entered the central business districtevery

day traveled on CTA' s trains and busses. ) Forty or fifty thousand

were suburbanites who took CT A for the last lap of a longer

journey by railroad orauto. The system served all of Chicago

hardly anyone in the city was more than a short walk froma CT A station and twenty-nine other municipalities as well,

This was by no means all of Cook County; most of its out-















































































































































PART

The StructureInfluence



LEChicago area from a purely formal standpoint,

can hardly be said to have a government at all. There are hundredsperhaps thousands, of bodies each of which has a measure of

legal authority and none of which has enough of it to carry out. course of action which other bodies oppose, Altogether, these

many bodies are like a great governing committee each member

of which has, in matters affecting it, an absolute veto, Moreover

the "committee" is (from a formal standpoint) one in which the

members can have no communication with each other, Each

legally separate body acts (from a formal standpoint) independ-

ently and without knowledge of the others. This being the case

it is of course extremely easy (from a formal standpoint) for

any opponent to forestall any action, An opponent has only to findamong the countless independent bodies whose consent is re-

quired, one which can be induced to withhold consent in order

to obstruct action, From a formal standpoint, virtually nothing

can be done if anyone opposes - and, of course, everything is

always opposed by someone -'- and therefore every opponent's

terms must always be met if there is to be action. Every outcomemust therefore be an elaborate compromise if not a stalemate.

For example, the government of Chicago proper consists of

executive, legislative, and judicial bodies which are formally

separate. The City Council may check the executive, The execu-

235iii

,i,

Ii I~

,Iii

Ii:;

il!'"I,







































































PART III

_

I I

Concerting Actionby Influence



IN earlier chapters, attention was centered npon theextreme fonnal decentralization of authority which is so strikinga feature of the Chicago political system,! This formal decentrali-

" zation, it was pointed out, must somehow be overcome by an

infonnal centralization before anything can be done, The case; studies may therefore be read as accounts of how infonnal' centralization is achieved , or, more precisely, how it is attempted,

YThe paradigm is as follows: the actions of many persons, eachof whom hasindependen1 authority, must be concerted for a

proposal to be adopted; the proponents of the proposal try to" concert these actions by exercising influence - by persuading,

;c;deceiving, inveigling, rewarding, punishing, and otherwise in-\;ducing; meanwhile the opponents exercise " influence either toprevent the a~tions from being concerted or to concert them inbehalf of some alternative proposal which they prefer.

In this chapter, this simple conceptual scheme is elaboratedinto a fonnal model having application to all situations in whichthe activity of two or more actors , each of whom is free to

giveor withhold his activity, is to be concerted, Although intendedprimarily to describe politics in a metropolitan area, the model

treats what Barnard and some others make the defining charac-eristic of all organization, namely, the conscious concerting of

ction to achieve a purpose,

307



































Notes

CHAPTER

INTRODUCTION1. It should be noted that two

important classes of phenomena

often included in definitions of in-fluence are here excluded: (1) the

production of unintended effects, and

(2) the production of effects uponthings as distinguished from actors,There may be some objection to

including "thinking" and "feeling

in the definition. But mental ac-

tivity, ofcourse, is very relevant,

We certainly act " Professor Knight

Functions of the Executive (Cam-bridge, Mass, : Harvard University

Press, 1938),3, A step in this direction was

taken by Peter H. Rossi in "Theory of Community Structures,"

a paper delivered at the 1959 meet-

ing of the American SociologicalSociety,

4, See two long case studies:Martin Meyerson and E, C. Ban-

field, Politics, Planning and the



has written largely if not predom-inantly and more or less intelligentlyand successfully, with a view tochanging the 'mental content,' theattitudes and feelings of otherhuman beings, rather than in orderto produce some desired physical

end. The universe of meaning,which is the universe of most pur-posive human life, is the universeof intercommunication, This is the

main form of power, the 'world' inwhich power is chiefly exercised (orvoluntarily not exercised) and withwhich a 'social analysis' of powermust be primarily concerned.

Frank H. Knight Bertrand Russell

on Power, Ethics, XLIX (April,1939), 257,

2, See Chester I. Barnard, The

CHAPTER

THE STRUCTURE

1. For an account of the Chicagomachine (although in the transi-

Public Interest, (Glencoe, Ill.: TheFree Press, 1955), and Peter H.Rossi and Robert A, Dentler Re-

building City (Glencoe, Ill.: TheFree Press, 1960),

5, James Q, Wilson Negro Pol-itics: The Search for Leadership

(Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press,

1960), deals largely with Chicago,

Peter B, Clark is completing a study

of "The Big Businessman as II CivicLeader," which is also based largelyupon observations made in Chicago.

6, When a person rather than a

role is meant, his name will be usedor his title capitalized (e. , MayorDaley or the Mayor). When the roleis meant, the title will not be capi-

talized (e, , the mayor),

INFLUENCE

tional period just before the rise ofMayor Daley), see Martin Meyerson

343











354

Race relations, 43, 295, 296 , 297-334, 339

, Race track owners , 192, 193Ralph H, Burke, Inc. Report, 195Randolph, Representative Paul J.

163- , 177, 184-

Rather, Ernest R. , 41-42Real Estate Board, 144Real Estate Research Corporation

152- , 154, 167-

Republicans, 71 , 72, 75, 79, 82, 84, 87 , 89- , 143 , 161-

Robinson, Representative WilliamH" 72- , 75 , 76, 82- , 89186-

Roosevelt College, 160Ropchan, Alexander, 21 , 24, 29

, 47-48, 49, 56Rose, Alvin E. , 64- , 70, 73- 75.

, iI , 86, 87, 88 , 285Rubel , Dorothy L , 209-Rublolf, Arthur, 127-31, 136, 137

154Ryan , Daniel, 15, 16- , 24, 28-

, 49-51, 54-

PoLrnCAL INFLUENCE

Stevenson, Governor Adlai, 163 , 192Stratton, Governor William C

, 61, 69, 70, 72- , 76, 79, 82, 87,

95- , 98- , 104- , 111- , 116-, 122, 125, 132, 134, 149, 177

193- , 196, 212 270 271 321-Stroedel Report , 76-Suburbs, 94, 98, 107, 126, 183 , 261Sudler, Carrol H" Jr. 141 142Sullivan

, Patrick F" 199-200Tagge , George , 192 , 194 , 196-

198-99, 228-Taxpayers suits 219-21, 222 , 224

226-Thorson, Reuben , 32, 33

Underwood, Thomas I. , 20, 54, 56University of Chicago , 52 , 160University of Illinois,

See ChicagoCampus

University of Illinois Board of Trus-tees, 161 , 164- 170, 174-178- , 188-



56, 62-, 7.9, 93

104-6, 116, 118, 132, 135, 136150, 151 , 173- , 181 , 253, 266270-80 passim, 290, 309, 313314 , 340

Sandquist, Elroy C. , 119-20, 125186

Sangamon County Fair Association226-

Sauers, Charles G" 172- , 174-181- 266

Sawyier, Calvin , 219, 221, 222, 223224 , 225 , 226

Schroeder, Werner W" 100, 102-Scribner, Gilbert H" Jr. , 32, , 173Scribner, Gilbert H" Sr. , 130Segregation, racial, 264, 283-Sheridan, Leo, 13 8

Sizer, William A , 200Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

, 129Slums , 94

Smith , Alfred E. , 345 n,Southtown Economist

, 112Spencer, William, 203 214State Street Council , 144Stein , Sidney, 223

Urban renewal, 147U. S, General Services Adminis:.ra-

tion, 132, 135 , 149, 157, 158

Van der Vries, Mrs. Bernice, 32 , 33, 123

Voters, 239-40 , 245 , 259 261-

Watkins, Ferre C. , 222, 224

Watkins, Frances B., 165Welfare Council of Metropolitan

Chicago, 18- , 29- , 42- , 46-, 52, 53, 54, 56, 78, 85, 269

283 , 334Welfare Merger, case study, 57-90;

mentioned 248 , 283 , 285, 336Williamson, George A , 200Williford , Robert P., 94Wirtz, Arthur, 199 204Wood , Elizabeth , 266Wood, General Robert , 48

Woods, Frank H. , 20 , 36 , 48-49Wrigley, Philip K, 150 , 151

Zimring, Fred, 226Zwiener, Kenneth V" 95



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Edward C. Banfield, Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics

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