grassroots

grassroots, type of movement or campaign that attempts to mobilize individuals to take some action to influence an outcome, often of a political nature. In practice, grassroots efforts typically come in two types: (1) efforts to mobilize individuals either to turn out to vote or to vote a certain way in an upcoming election and (2) efforts to mobilize individuals to contact a policymaker or other individual with influence to take a particular action (also called “outside lobbying”). The distinguishing features of grassroots movements or campaigns are that (1) they mobilize masses to participate in politics (such as contacting their legislator or turning out to vote) or some other cause and (2) they are conducted through narrow communications such as mail, e-mail, phone calls, or face-to-face visits rather than broadcast media such as television or radio.