An Interorganizational Approach to Local Politics

Abstract

This article argues how we can use a new approach, the interorganizational approach, for the study of local politics. Although the interorganizational approach has been developed mainly in the field of organization study, this approach has been latently used for, and therefore, familiar to the study of local politics as well. In studying local politics, however, this approach has not yet been integrated well and vaguely diversified by several frameworks. In this article, the interorganizational network approach is discussed as the most effective for studying local politics.Local politics, from the interorganizational network perspective, can be analyzed on any one of the following three levels.(1) An interorganizational network emerged around a certain issue, which manifests as a discernible phenomenon of local politics.(2) An interorganizational network as a power structure, by which a local.political structure is described.(3) An interorganizational network as an infrastructure, i.e., as a latent social structure, on which local politics is at work.Among them, the first one seems to be most available, because the analytical objects are distinct and easily confined.Two axes, (1) existence or absence of a coordinating agency and (2) manifestation or latency of opposition, provide us with four ideal types of “the issue interorganizational network”. Those are (1) market-type network, (2) administration-type network, (3) confrontation-type network, and (4) mediation-type network. Some hypotheses are suggested on transitional processes among them, and on decision making process of each type.