The Grande Ronde Model Watershed Program: A Case Study

• Published in: Administrative theory & praxis 1999-03, Vol.21 (1), p.76-87
• Main Author: Mazaika, Rosemary
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Basins; Civics; Communitarianism; Communities; Natural resource management; River water; Social capital; Symposium: Community Capacity, Social Trust and Public Administration; Water management; Water resources; Watersheds
• ISSN: 1084-1806; 1949-0461
• DOI: 10.1080/10841806.1999.11643350

The case study examines the efforts of local communities in the Grande Ronde area of Oregon to obtain and develop social capital that allows them to tap economic and political resources of the state andfederal government in order to develop the area's scare water resources. The case explores what is called the "tragedy of transformation thesis." Essentially this thesis argues that traditional rural communities of place lose their civic republican character, and thus much of their unique community capacity, as they seek economic, political and social capital from a pluralist society dommated by communities of interest (purposive associations). The analysis of the case does not basically support this thesis. Rather the case appears to show that the local political leadership in the Grande Ronde was successful in providing the area with an identity as a community of place while acting effectively as a community of interest.