Leadership, Community Decisions, and Geothermal Energy Development: Imperial County, California

Abstract

Power structures are made up of decision makers who are largely responsible for the actions and nonactions in organizations at all levels in the United States. At the individual level, the ability to make decisions enables one to influence the behavior of another. At the communty-system level, an organization or power group may be able to command the behavior of other individuals or organizations. From a social system point of view, decisions involve every unit of human organization: the individual, the family, voluntary as opposed to involuntary organizations, the government, corporations, and the community (Hawley, 1971). Power is obtained by controlling that which is valued by people in a society (Lasswell and Kaplan, 1950). In the U.S., those who control economic institutions have power, influence decisions, and can implement decisions (Goldberg and Lindstromberg, 1966). Power structures are defined as the characteristic pattern within a community whereby resources are mobilized and sanctions employed in making decisions (Walton, 1967). Thus, a community is considered an organization of units held together through the use of power.