This research is a case study of the Watergate Affair. It set out to elaborate Gamson's resource mobilization and system permeability theory by shifting social form from social movement to state authority. Vaughan's theory elaboration methodology was applied. The research unveiled a unique story line of the Watergate Affair. It discovered that the interpersonal networking and the agenda-framing and reframing were driving forces throughout the entire Watergate Affair. The findings further revealed the limit of the system permeability of the American authority system where the power dynamics was individual power-holder's resource mobilization, rather than the function of the state institutions. Powerful politicians' mobilization through loose-knit interpersonal networks dominated the political process and produced the outcome of the Watergate Affair. The state institutions were resources rather than actors and they, only to some extent, enabled the outcome.
Gamson's theory was elaborated through discussions of the following theoretical conclusions. (1) Actors were those powerful politicians rather than the state institutions. (2) The interpersonal networks as organizational form of the state system were more significant than the state institutions. (3) Resource mobilization among those powerful politicians was the driving force of the political process. (4) The system permeability was limited because of the drive for insulation and domination of those powerful politicians. (5) State authority could be better understood through the accumulative nature of power. The findings confirmed Gamson's theory and consequently contradicted the classic pluralist view, as well as the state-centered and the rational choice theory. These results also supported the agency perspective and falsified the structural approach.
