Conflict in the Community: A Theory of the Effects of Community Size

Gordon S. Black

American Political Science Review, 1974, vol. 68, issue 3, 1245-1261

Abstract: Two theories of community conflict are examined in this paper with data from elections in 89 cities in the San Francisco Bay area. One theory is developed from the work on group conflict by Georg Simmel and Lewis Coser while the other is a rational choice theory based on assumptions about the costs and risks of conflict in different size cities. Both theories suggest that conflict, while more frequent in larger communities, is likely to become most severe in smaller communities. Both theories are confirmed by the pattern of findings in the analysis, but the rational choice theory proves to have the greater generality, i.e., that it can explain more of the findings in the paper.

Date: 1974
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