Generating Community Change 349group practising the conflict approach. Tactics may change from day to day. Alin-
sky emphasized the importance of the element of surprise in responding to those
who are in power. This need for flexibility, quick response and surprise, coupled
with the fact that initially the community organizer (who is usually from the out-
side) must be a catalyst for building an organization, are tendencies that militate
toward a narrowing of decision making to a small group of people or sometimes to
a single leader. However, the long-term survival and effectiveness of the organiza-
tion in achieving its goals depend on broad and deep support from within the
disadvantaged group. That support is best maintained through broad and active
participation. So long as the organization commands few resources, participation,
if not democratic decision making, is central to maintaining support for the organ-
ization. Numbers are a substitute for financial resources. Thus, there is a perma-
nent tension in the organization or movement between democracy and
centralization of control. As the organization becomes more successful in gaining
resources, participation and democracy may decline unless democratic decision
making processes were explicitly attended to in the organizational phase. Thus, in
addition to goal setting, the strategy for organizing is a central part of the planning
process for a group using the conflict approach.
Models of Economic Development
Different people have different ideas as to what is entailed by economic develop-
ment. Some see economic development as identical with an increase in commu-
nity income. Others view it in terms of an expansion in the number of jobs. Still
others would say that economic development involves an increase in population.
The relationship between community development and economic development
depends on the kind of economic development that is pursued. There are a number
of models for how economic development takes place. The model that members of
a community adhere to influences the kind of action they undertake to bring
about change. In short, there is a relationship between the kind of economic devel-
opment model pursued and the kind of community development model pur-
sued.
The firm recruitment model
One model of economic development is the firm recruitment model. It assumes
that private-sector firms have considerable geographic mobility as they seek more-
favourable locations. Early tactics aimed at firm recruitment during the growth
years of the 1950s through the 1970s were very straightforward, involving such
things as the construction of industrial sites and proactive industrial recruiting by
more sophisticated cities. It was assumed that any particular locality had a series of
advantages to offer and that firms would somehow find them, although by the