摘要：Several measures o f s t r u c t u r a l d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n f o r various i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d areas o f county development are compared. Evidence regarding the hypotheses t h a t d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n i s a system-wide, unidimensional phenomenon and t h a t it i s r e l a t e d t o population are investigated. Scalable dimensions are found to e x i s t among county administrative c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , medical special t i e s , comnercial services, and educational i n s t i t u t i o n s . Guttman scales formed from the complexity o f such development are often used along with population size as operational measures o f l o c a l i t y d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n . The four scales and population size are analyzed together using the Guttman-Lingoes M u l t i p l e Scalogram Analysis f o r three d i f f e r e n t points i n time. It i s concluded t h a t the a l t e r n a t i v e measures o f d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n cannot be used interchangeably as equal or nearly equal measures o f the concept. Population size and the d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n o f comnercial services, however, are close para1 l e l s . Their r e l i a b i l i t y as correlates o f d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n i s consistent f o r three d i f f e r e n t points i n time as indicated by the Guttman-Lingoes M u l t i p l e Scalogram Analysis. Theoretical implications are t h a t d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n cannot be viewed as a s i n g l e phenomenon. Future research should consider separately d i f f e r e n t l e v e l s o f development and rates o f change depending on the type o f d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n considered. This w i l l make the task f o r explanatory theory more complicated than it would have been had a l l measures o f s t r u c t u r a l complexity proven t o be t a u t o l o g i c a l l y related. Introduction
