Who Rules? (in Richmond)

(is the title of a famous book in political science by G. William Domhoff).

Yesterday's Richmond Times-Dispatch has a special report called "They Run Richmond," about the civic leaders from the business and nonprofit communities that are extra-normally influential behind the scenes. (What Molotch calls "The Growth Machine.") How the Times-Dispatch explained the story:

Times-Dispatch reporters began asking the question "Who runs Richmond?" this year. The answer turned out to be, in part, that no individual or group is all-powerful. Instead, a web of relationships gives each person a measure of influence or power. These articles about that web of power are based on more than 50 interviews conducted over more than five months, and on a database that includes nearly 1,000 individuals and the boards and foundations they belong to. Still, it is apparent that a handful of men, all white and all with access to large amounts of money, are at the center of the web. These articles detail not just who they are but how they exercise the power they have to make things happen in Richmond.

There are some great graphics on the "web of power" which show links amongst the organizations and the key actors. What's also interesting is that traditionally the local newspaper is part of the Growth Machine. Something happened in Richmond... Media General owns other papers in places like Tampa, Newport News, and the Carolinas, and they are powerful in Richmond, yet over the year they have questioned the Convention Center, the proposed relocation of the baseball stadium to Shockoe Bottom, and now this. Something's up...

In DC, the version of "They Run Richmond" is the group of civic leaders that comprises the Federal City Council. This award-winning article from the Common Denominator explains the group--it would be useful to update this with similar graphical "webs of power" in the city. Also see this article from the Post (the publisher, Don Graham, is a member of the FCC, and the Post often refers to the FCC as a "civic organization"), "The Makings of a Museum: Long Influential, Federal City Council Finds Its Mettle Tested on Music Center Project" and this editorial, "Thanks to Ken Sparks."