The meeting led me to believe that America has an elite democracy, even in the states. An elite democracy is one in which the people do not decide on direct individual matters, but, rather they elect representatives to decide on matters in their place. The Finance committee may decide on choices they believe to be more beneficial towards the people such as the GHI fuel/credit system, but it is the people who work in state government jobs that make the fuel decisions. This situation does have some aspects of popular democracy though; because the Community Facilities committee will use the credit and money to improve Riverside if the powers agree to put the system in place. This shows that the Riverside City Hall believes in a popular democracy, but is forced to act as an elite democracy. They look out for everyone’s point of view using committees such as Human Resources to ensure the organization is staffed with the proper resources to achieve its goals and objectives that are most beneficial to the people. However, given a clear lack of participation by the people, they remain an “elite” group of decision makers.
Attending this meeting made me realize that I need to get more involved with not only federal politics, but state and city politics as well. I believe that many