Leadership
The readings this past week covered some different concepts. The Cnaan readings encompassed the topic of community elites and power structure, but Rikki Abzug, which provided an overview of the mid-20th century sociological thought on the concept of elites. First is was noted that there is an elite hypothesis, wherein "professional or political players were setting policy" in our communities, rather than having policy achieved through pluralist decision-making. The core of this idea is that a handful of bodies -- major corporations, the military and major political bodies are ruling the country, in contrast to "religious, educational and family institutions" -- I guess the implication is that the current state is worse than having those institutions run by similar powerbrokers in charge of things. So the readings look at the study of power structures in the community, and why this study has died out. The reading is basically a...
This idea serves as a counterpoint to the elites ruling communities by providing an understanding of how communities can organize for themselves. Taylor provides an interesting overview of the different approaches to managing a community, along with their corresponding models of democracy, vehicles for solutions and the role of community practice. Knowing how power works in a community provides for better opportunities to counter the power of elites, for example,.
The other readings highlight some issues in accounting for not-for-profit entities. Chapter 18 provides an overview of financial reporting -- by function or by groups. There is…
