Grassroots democracy

Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making advice as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization.

Grassroots organizations can pull in a bracket of structures; depending on the type of organization and what the members want. These can be non-structured in addition to non-hierarchical organizations that are run by all members, or by whichever section wishes to work something.

To cite a particular hypothetical example, a national grassroots organization would place as much decision-making power to direct or imposing as possible in the hands of local chapters or common members instead of the head office. The principle is that for democratic power to be best exercised it must be vested in a local community in addition to common members and instead of isolated, atomized individuals, at the top of the organization. Grassroots organizations can inhabit participatory systems. Grassroots systems differ from representative systems that permit local communities or national memberships to elect representatives who then go on to construct decisions.

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