Hello Professor and Class,
From my understanding and reading the text I have found that the elitist (communities most powerful people) stand at the head of decision making for the communities, these people typically power and money (Dale & Smith, 2013). Our text states "The people at the top have power based on wealth and organizational and social status" (pg. 479) . After the elitist have informally come up with a decision then the implementer of the policy. So what this looks like to myself is that there is a group and they have similar interests and they dictate what it is our communities should or should not be concerned about, usually these parties have similar interests as well as similar expectations and then they take whatever policy that have come up with and present it to the government who then carries it out. The other position would the Pluralist position, this is an adoption of the democratic creed so that those who do not come from power, wealth or social elite families can represent communities and cities alike.
As for me I would I would like to see myself as a community developer, I feel that I would not only take a pluralist approach but also a generalist practitioners approach. I would involve those in the community as well as those who could fund the projects and pass the laws. I would like to bride the gap, if you will.
Thank you,
Jacklyn