Grassroots on the official Ron Paul wesite.

 

 Bottom-up or top-down?

 

 

 

 

1. What is a grassroots movement?

 

The disenchantment with politics has risen in the last decades. Many people have lost interest in politics, stopped going out to vote and ceased to commit themselves politically. In his book Politics, the Greek philosopher Aristotle asserted that man is, by nature, a political animal. Is this still the case in the 21st century? The nominating process of the 2008 presidential election shows that people still care about politics. They have found new public spheres on the web 2.0 like blogs and other social software to communicate and coordinate their movements.

    However bottom-up politics is not an invention of the 21st century. People have always tried to engage in politics and to coordinate organized movements. The only thing that has changed is the effort needed to make a change. Grassroots movements have become popular in each and every part of society. But what exactly is a grassroots movement?

    A grassroots movement is driven by the constituents of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is organized by traditional power structures. Often, grassroots movements are at the local level. A grassroots movement can lead to significant voter registration for a political party.

 

 

 

 

Grassroots organize and lobby through procedures including:

• hosting house meetings or parties
• putting up posters
• talking with pedestrians on the street
• setting up information tables
• raising money from many small donors for political advertising or campaigns
• organizing large demonstrations

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grassroots movement in New Hampshire

 

2. The role of the Internet in grassroots movements

 

Candidates have adopted their campaigns to take advantage of the great impacts of grassroots. The Internet has become the most important tool of communication and coordination between the candidates and their supporters. Internet based campaign efforts have become more and more professional and effective.

    Grassroots movements which are organized on the Internet are sometimes even integrated into the official websites of the candidates. That is one reason why grassroots are sometimes not very transparent. The original idea of spontaneous and natural webs of supporters who gather in a semi-public place like blogs for example does not apply to all grassroots any more.

    Fundraising has become an important goal of grassroots movements. The decentralization of fundraising efforts has been very successful for some candidates. Ron Paul for example has broken several records when he rose over $6.3 million in just one day.

 

 

 

The Internet & grassroots movements:

• Speed-up: The Internet has accelerate the process of communication and coordination between people who want to be engaged in politics (actively)
• Internationality: Political grassroots invole people from all over the world
• Equality: People from different social backgrounds communitare through the Internet and are engaged in the same movements
• Money bomb: Fundraising is easier and more efficient on the Internet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Internationality: Ron Paul supporters in Paris

 

 

 

3. Ron Paul’s grassroots efforts on his official website. Bottom-up or top-down?

 

 

 

The official website of Ron Paul shows a lot of opportunities for people to support Ron Paul. One of these opportunities is to become a 'Precinct Leader':

 

 

 

 

 Ron Paul is "seeking volunteers to serve as designated "Precinct Leaders" across America." The goal of a precinct leader is to "win Dr. Paul a victory in your precinct, by identifying supporters, winning a few undecided voters, and reminding them get to the polls on Election Day."

Klicking on obe of those big banners gets the user to the official Grassroots central website of Ron Paul.

 

 

Characteristics of the official Grassroots Central website of Ron Paul:

 

Interactivity:

 

• Naming of individuals on the front page
• Personal level: "help Ron Paul..."
• Counter of registered precinct leaders
• Top 10 precint leaders are named (precinct leaders who recruited the most new precint leaders)

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hypertext:

 

There is no hypertext on the official Grassroots Central website of Ron Paul. This makes it more difficult for a user to get back to the front page from this grassroots page. It is a clever move to keep people on this site. The only way to get back to the front page is to klick on the "ronpaul2008.com" part of the menu on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The pledge"

 

Everyone who wants to sign up as a precinct leader has to take the 'Ron Paul pledge'.

 

 

 

 

Bottom-up or top-down?

 

The highlighted repetitions of key aspects of the 'pledge' is important is this context. The aim of this pledge is to win as much people as possible on a local level. Is is a grassroots movement that is organized by the team behind the official Ron Paul website.

 

 

4. Conclusion

 

The Internet is becoming more and more important for politicians like Ron Paul to get in contact with their supporters. The official Grassroots Central website of Ron Paul shows how much grassroots movements are already professionalized and sometimes even structured from top to bottom. The original idea of grassroots that are bottom-up organized is far away from the centralized Grassroots Central website.

    Real grassroots only grow bottom-up. Ron Paul has turned this natural law upside down. He has created a new kind of grassroots movement. The natural and local idea of grassroots has been changed into a directed and controlled movement.

 

 

 

 

Goals of the official Grassroots Central website of Ron Paul:

• get in contact with supporters
• recruit new supporters
• exchange of information
• online fundraising
• top-down organized grassroots (but make it look like bottom-up)

 

 

 

---

 

 

Sources:

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/tgovt10.txt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_%28Aristotle%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/americas_new_hampshire_primaries/img/1.jpg

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/2007_08.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Republican_presidential_candidates

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/ronpaul.jpg

 

 Create your own educational wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS