Grassroots facts for kids
A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) is one which uses the people in a given district as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations utilize collective action from the local level to affect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up (coming from people), rather than top-down (coming from government) decision making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures.
Grassroots movements utilize a variety of strategies from fundraising and registering voters, to simply encouraging political conversation. Goals of specific movements vary, but the movements are consistent in their focus on increasing mass participation in politics.
Below is a list of strategies considered to be grassroots because of their focus on engaging the populace.
- Hosting house meetings or parties
- Having larger meetings
- Organizing large demonstrations
- Putting up posters
- Talking with pedestrians on the street or walking door-to-door (often involving informational clipboards)
- Gathering signatures for petitions
- Mobilizing letter-writing, phone-calling, and emailing campaigns
- Setting up information tables
- Raising money from many small donors for political advertising or campaigns
- Asking individuals to submit opinions to media outlets and government officials
- Holding get out the vote activities, which include the practices of reminding people to vote and transporting them to polling places.
- Using online social networks to organize virtual communities
See also Grassroots democracy.
Images for kids
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An activist with a local community advocacy organization speaks during a protest against local evictions
See also
In Spanish: Movimiento de bases para niños
