Article,
Community Coalitions and Grassroots Policies of Empowerment
Administration & Society, 30 (5): 569-594 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0095399798305004
Abstract
Foundations and government agencies use community coalitions increasingly as instruments of social policy and program implementation. The rationales and hopes for community coalitions abound with terms such as grassroots, representation, development, and empowerment. This article examines the range and relationship of the conceptual meanings of these terms to explain their consequences on community coalition building. It arranges their differences in conceptual patterns and suggests that community coalitions have their greatest chance of success when their member groups share the same forms of representation and participation and pursue similar forms of empowerment and change. This discussion clarifies the different policy and program purposes that different community coalitions may serve. Thus, the article explains the difficulties with broad coalitions and may assist to make some community coalition building easier and to make all community coalitions more effective.
