The Political Styles and Organizational Strategies of American Prosecutors: Examples from Nine Courthouse Communities*

This paper focuses on the relationship between the political styles and organizational strategies of prosecutors in nine medium-sized courthouse communities in the United States. Three political styles are identified and a choice model developed that rests on the prosecutors' satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the status of their offices and on their view regarding the expected value of conflict. In turn these styles lead to different organizational strategies in which bureaucratization and office culture, given the mediating effects of office size and staff loyalty, are used as policy tools to achieve prosecutor goals.