THE HISTORY OF LOCAL POLITICAL POWER—SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS

Abstract This paper represents an attempt to analyse certain aspects of the work on 'community power' within a historical context. It begins with a critical review of those writers whose work has included a historical dimension, particularly R. A. Dahl. It is argued that generalizations about the location of power in the past need to go beyond the mere analysis of the background of office-holders, and the consequent search for a socio-economic 'élite'. Indeed, such generalizations need to be tested quite as rigorously as any that are made about the present. On the basis of research done on Salford, an attempt is made to suggest a framework for the comparative analysis of the political context within which nineteenth-century urban municipal leaders operated, and by which their power was conditioned.     

THE POLITICAL CAUSES OF INFLATION

Abstract This article identifies two types of causal explanations of inflation that do not fit well with the categories of analysis used by economists and sociologists. These causes are first, a deliberate centralized decision to start up inflation in pursuit of some high priority political objective; and second, a weakening of the power structure underpinning a given market, so that sectional conflicts of interest can no longer be peacefully resolved except by tolerating inflation. These two causes of inflation are highly political in character, but students of politics have not taken a prominent part in recent inter-disciplinary analyses of inflationary processes. The article therefore reviews the approaches proposed by economists and sociologists. It argues that the sociological approach is almost inherently incapable of explaining inflation at the international level (the major source of historically experienced inflations), and that economics also has some difficulty in adapting itself to an environment in which the political and institutional bases of market relationships are shifting and insecure. It concludes that students of politics can and should make a larger contribution to the analysis of inflationary processes.