Grassroots democracy

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For other meanings, see Grass roots (disambiguation).

Democracy
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Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes where as much decision-making authority as is practical is shifted to the organization's lowest geographic level of organization. To cite a specific hypothetical example, a grassroots national organization, such as an NGO, would place as much decision-making power as possible in the hands of a local chapter instead of the head office. The principle is that for democratic power to be best exercised it must be vested in a local community instead of isolated, atomized individuals. As such, grassroots organizations exist in contrast to so-called participatory systems, which tend to allow individuals equal access to decision-making irrespective of their standing in a local community, and, which particular community they reside. As well, grassroots systems also differ from representative systems that allow local communities or national memberships to elect representatives who then go on to make decisions.

The difference between the three systems comes down to where they rest on two different axes: the rootedness in a community (i.e. grassroots versus national or international); and the ability of self-appointed individuals to participate in the decision-making process (i.e. participatory versus representative.)

The Industrial Workers of the World pioneered the archetypal workplace democracy model, the Wobbly Shop, in which the self-managing norms of grassroots democracy were applied.

See also

• Cell church
• List of politics-related topics
• International Simultaneous Policy Organization

External links

• [The Ten Key Values of the Greens]
• [www.grassroots.de]
• [Industrial Workers of the World]
• [Labor Commission of the Socialist Party USA]

 

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