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Grassroots
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Grassroots is a term often used to refer to movements (usually social or political) that have been created as a natural response to some perceived social or political wrong or cause.
These organizations (at least those that are genuine in origin) tend to be locally-based as opposed to national in terms of scale,[1] their backing tends to rest entirely on ordinary people as opposed to a formal organization, and their funding, if any, comes from voluntary donors within the movement or from their sympathizers.[2]
By contrast, the fake version is Astroturfing (so named after the artificial grass product), where a corporation, think tank, or some other formal party with a direct interest in the issue at hand (such as a product like the health risks of cigarettes or a political cause like nativism) either covertly and artificially creates a "grassroots" organization (which is in reality a shill for their interests), or co-opts a genuine grassroots movement for their own purposes.
References[edit]
- ↑ Smith, David Horton. Grassroots Associations. Sage Publications, Inc.
- ↑ Gundelach, Peter. (1979) Grass Roots Organizations. Acta Sociologica.