The organization of local government in England underwent significant structural revision during the 1970s, creating centralized authorities focused on objectives and service delivery systems rather than on organizational structures and the separate services delivered. As the most autonomous local agency prior to reorganization, education was the most threatened by this shift in authority and organizational concerns, finding itself in a situation identified by the author of this report as offering a good opportunity for observing system politics at work. One of four types of politics associated with policy-making, system politics comprises the struggles over structures and procedures to be used for deciding policy. The study reported in this paper turned on how the new government-school relationship affected the role of the deputy director of education. Interviews with governmental and educational administrators and extensive consultation of documentary sources provided the data. The study identified significant changes in the deputy director's role, including a movement away from organizational duties and toward more functional duties, a broadening of responsibilities beyond educational and professional functions to more managerial functions, and a shift from ad hoc tasks to more regular activities in the education department's external relationships. (Author/PGD)