13611. COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT VERSUS ELITIST POLITICS: THE CASE OF URBAN EMPOWERMENT ZONES. This paper examines the issue of community power and urban poverty reduction from the perspective of the urban Empowerment Zone program. The analysis begins with a review of the literature on urban poverty, theories of community empowerment and the theoretical impact of empowerment on poverty. The second part of the paper presents a research design for the study of empowerment zone impact in the six initial urban empowerment zones. The proposed study aims at elucidating the local political forces underlying the relative success or failure of the empowerment zone projects in the designated urban areas. Based on a review of media reports, evaluative studies, and empirical investigations of empowerment zone operations to date, preliminary data are presented and tentative findings/conclusions discussed. 31p. 141f. 50b.