Reputational and pluralistic methods of community analysis differ; their findings, conclusions, and philosophies are frequently at variance. Reputationalists find an economically dominated power elite. They picture a community's power and influence structure as pyramidal -- the power elite forming a monolithic power pyramid. Thus, according to reputationalists, only a select few run the affairs of the community. The pluralists, on the other hand, assume that influence is specialized and that people act primarily in areas of major interest. Consequently, for pluralists, no single group dominates the community, and those people who are influential in one sector of public activity tend to be noninfluential in another. However, both schools of thought agree on one fundamental point: very few citizens actually participate in the community's decisionmaking processes. (Author)