This is a study of local politics in the rural Shire of Cowra, New South Wales. Cowra Shire, in 1986, had a population of about 12,000, some two-thirds of whom lived in the town of Cowra. The Shire's economy is largely agricultural, with the town servicing the needs of its own people and those of its rural hinterland.

The study explains the maintenance of Cowra's local political power structure with analysis of social processes and associated ideologies. The problem it tackles lies in the persistence of a hierarchical social relationship, one between interested groups of people who were, and some who were not, able to consistently gain access to a political system. It reveals why, in Cowra Shire, in 1986, some people could more easily than others make local politics work for them. In order to do so, it describes the dynamics of local political activity. To develop explanation for the nature of that activity, it refers to the historical social structures within which choices of political action have been made.

In building explanation, my work applies and seeks to develop social theory which may be used to cast light on political relations in other situations. In this, and being a study of a particular place and time, it resembles many community studies. By regarding spatial and historical contexts, however, it moves away from the discrete community assumption of some earlier studies toward a concept of community in which institutions are interrelated and locality-based without being locality constrained.