Meaning
The ordinary people at the base of a party, movement, or campaign, as opposed to its leadership, machine, or donors - and, by extension, organizing that grows bottom-up from local support rather than being directed from the top down. A grassroots campaign claims authenticity precisely because it started in the soil, not the boardroom. Almost always approving when applied to a movement, implying authenticity; watch for Astroturfing, its manufactured imitation. Regional use: General English; American political origin.
Origin
The earliest origins as a political metaphor are, as Wikipedia concedes, obscure, but the print trail begins in American progressivism: a 1904 news article quoted a Kansas organizer promising that Roosevelt clubs 'will be organized in every locality. We will begin at the grass roots'; in 1907 the Oklahoma official Ed Perry ran on 'grass root representation... against ring rule'; and in 1912 Senator Albert Beveridge, campaigning for the new Progressive Party, gave the phrase its most quoted early airing - 'This party has come from the grass roots. It has grown from the soil of people's hard necessities'. The image is of roots spreading through ordinary voters' soil, feeding the movement from below. Wiktionary records the modern adjective, of or relating to people or society at the local level, and lists Astroturf - fake grassroots manufactured by consultants - as its telling opposite.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- grassroots campaign
- grassroots movement
Usage Examples
- The party leadership backed the deal, but the grassroots refused it, and constituency meetings voted it down.
- Her campaign was genuinely grassroots: three volunteers, a borrowed hall, and two hundred small donations.
- Organizers suspected the letter campaign was Astroturf rather than grassroots, since every envelope bore the same postmark.