RATIONAL CHOICE AND COMMUNITY POWER STRUCTURES

The community power debate concluded with each side believing they had won. Political theorists have generalized power, making empirical inv estigation very difficult; urban scholars have turned their attention to more manageable empirical problems. Rational choice advances the de bate, exposing the errors of all sides and facilitating a new approach which transcends structural versus individualist methods. By separati ng various aspects of power in urban contexts, complementary technique s such as network analysis in a bargaining framework, semi-structured interviewing and the use of text databases permits a comprehensive inv estigation of agenda-setting and the mobilization of bias. The paper d emonstrates the utility of this approach by comparing it to 'regime th eory', the latest paradigm of urban research.