The Urban Party Organization as an Opportunity Structure: Race and Party Differences Among Cleveland Ward Leaders

Abstract

A party organization may be conceptualized as a set of reciprocally beneficial relationships or, as Eldersveld has suggested, a set of mutually exploitative relationship(s) -it is joined by those who would use it; it mobilizes for the sake of power those who would join it.' To conceive of the party as an opportunity structure directs our attention to the recognizable and limited set of opportunities (offices and positions) controlled by the party, and to the possibility that more ambitious individuals may gravitate toward the party for these opportunities. Within the party, ambition and rewards coexist to the benefit of both the party activist and the organization.2 This organizational symbiosis, coupling ambition with opportunity, is particularly important to minority groups, especially groups that possess electoral strength but that have few other political resources. Minority group success within the party organization depends upon the group's size and upon its geographical concentration, while the attraction of group members to the party depends, in part, on the extent to which the minority group has been an object of discrimination. Some minority group members consequently are drawn to the personal and tangible rewards offered by the party, but denied them elsewhere.3 The party, dependent as it is on votes, is especially vulnerable to these people when they can command large blocs of supporters. Although conditions over the last several decades have tended to undermine the traditional role of the party organization, the party may