Using a social historical framework applied to Gottingen, North Germany, from the sixteenth century to 1948, the dynamics of local government structure are researched. This is seen through time as a corporate organisation of domains of externally oriented activity variably integrated with a decision-making core as an involute structure. Through examination of recruitment practices, administrative allocation and decision-making it is shown how integrated processes of decision-making (means of choice) constitute a framework for political action, where individuals have differential access to and control over critical events and modes of communication within that framework. / Deriving from this, political activity in local government is analysed in terms of a categorisation of means and dimensional properties of power in local government. A link is made to a theoretical enquiry of the nature of social classes and the state and their implications for community politics. This provides the basis for an examination of class relations in Gottingen.

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