A good Ol’ Boy network is a southern US term for the circle of powerful men who “run things.” Usually on a local scale. The term is usually associated with Cronyism or other exclusionary practices. One can hear quite a few stories from those who do not benefit from being part of the right group or feel that they were discriminated on by “them.” But I’m wondering if anyone here has ever had any good experiences from dealing with this kind of group.
I’ve had some benefit, more in a professional networking way than any kind of favoritism. Professors knew where internships were opening up. Being from a certain school made certain customers more receptive to me. So although I don’t think I ever got any favoritism over others professionally or academically, I still got benefits from being in the right group.
I find that they are more a thing of the past than the present. Networking among other groups - professionals, churches, clubs - seems to have taken away much of the Good Ol’ Boys’ power.
One nice thing about the Good Ol’ Boys is that they knew how to take care of things. Let’s say you need a new roof. You can call all over town getting estimates, checking references, looking them up with the BBB – or, you can call your Good Ol’ Boy buddy, who knows someone, who gives you a great deal and great service, because he wouldn’t dare cross a Good Ol’ Boy.
We had a group here named “Civic Progress,” which, while not strictly a Good Ol’ Boy network, was the organization of CEO’s of local companies. When Civic Progress decided they wanted a project done (for example, getting a new stadium, or clearing out the slums) the project got done in record time. If they didn’t approve of a project – well, let’s just say there’s a room full of unused development plans in City Hall.
I can’t say for certain, but more than one citizen of Springfield, Illinois has speculated that the reason Springfield has neither a Chick-Fil-A nor a White Castle is that the family that owns the local McDonald’s franchise has wielded its “political power” to prevent the necessary paperwork from going through.
Furthermore, Springfield also lacks a Krispy Kreme. COMPLETELY unrelated (:dubious: ) is the fact that a VERY wealthy area family owns a doughnut factory in town (Mel-o-Cream).
It is still alive and well in Hoboken, New Jersey, as well as other parts of Northern New Jersey. City council elections are tomorrow in Hoboken, so I hope some of the corruption gets voted out. I’m not holding my breath though.
I’d never heard of the good ol’ boy network as being some sort of cabalistic organization, but rather, just a network of people who happen to have a lot of influence and/or power.
In larger cities, this doesn’t necessarily matter much- there are plenty of networks that compete with each other. In smaller towns though, the controlling one tends to be the one you want to know.
You still see a lot of this kind of thing at universities though.
It’s interesting that within the space of 5 posts both sides of the coin have been brought up: “corruption” at one end of the spectrum and “Getting Things Done” on the other.
I suspect that part of the reason that I was able to get a specific internship at a company may have been that the company President’s wife was very close friends with my mother. I can’t prove it and I’m not about to go back and ask.
ISTR that, 20 or 30 years ago, the term for this was the “Old Boy Network”, and it wasn’t just a Southern phenomenon. Somewhere along the line, I think that the term got conflated with “good ol’ boy” (often synonymous with “redneck”).
I posted about “getting things done” because the OP asked,
The downside to this, of course, is that the entire city becomes fossilized and nothing gets done unless TPTB deem it worthy. It might work for a generation or two, but eventually the rich guys who built the town die off, retire or sell their businesses; their kids move away or don’t show the same civic ambition (or competence) and suddenly there’s no one left who actually knows how to get things done.
My county is currently losing much of it’s Good Ol Boy network. The recent building boom brought in a whole lot of newcomers which diluted the power of the Old Boys. The newcomers don’t know the old guys or care about helping them beyond professional networking. Further, with a hundred building companies to choose from, there’s a lot more competition than when there were only twelve and thus harder to maintain the oligarchy on development. The building bust has further weakened it by sending a lot of those Ol Boys into to bankruptcy or retirement.