Talk:Grassroots democracy
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I made a big change in the page because the previous entry didn't make any statement about the idea that grassroots democracy is geographically and community based. As such, it was confusing two very distinct issues, namely whether or not decision-making is "rooted", and, whether or not non-elected individual members are allowed to enter into the decision-making process. These two issues are not the same, yet people often seem oblivious to the distinction.
In fact, in many cases, the two points specifically contradict each other. A grassroots organization may go to great lengths to follow a community-based process of debate and consensus building. Once a decision has been reached, were someone from another commuity were to "butt in" and then make changes simply on her own initiative, then the process would cease to be "grassroots", but it might arguably be participatory. Similarly, if outsiders were forbidden to intervene, the process could be "grassroots", but not "participatory."
These issues are not trivial, as they have been the focus of very heated debate within Green Parties between advocates of computer-based decision-making who have no interest in creating local, riding-based political entities versus people who have been working on creating a confederacy of community-based political organizations. The experience is that isolated individuals have no understanding at all of the need to accomodate different points of view----many of whom have no interest at all in participating in internet-based discussions and instead only wish to work on a face-to-face basis in their local organization.
The result is that individuals become incensed when a larger institution, like a Green Party national office, steps in to defend the rights of non-internet-based membership to set national policy. Because the partisans of "participatory process" (i.e. things like a Wiki) do not actually see any of the large numbers of members who choose to participate through grassroots organizing venues (or representative electoral processes, for that matter), it looks as if some sort of arbitrary control has been exerted.
This is difference of viewpoint between people existing in different organizational milieus has been the cause of some extremely bitter conflict. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 131.104.66.26 (talk • contribs) December 23, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] First sentence doesn't make sense
I think there is a verb missing:
Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes where as much decision-making authority as is practical ***is given*** to the organization's lowest geographic level of organization. Gakrivas 14:52, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
- Nice one. I changed this half a year later :) . Just goes to show that wiki thrives on action and not on talk . Be Bold ! :D Regards Sean Heron 17:08, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
