Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization.
Grassroots organizations can have a variety of structures; depending on the type of organization and what the members want. These can be non-structured and non-hierarchical organizations that are run by all members, or by whichever member wishes to do something.
Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. It began taking shape in the Western world in the 1970s; since then, green parties have developed and established themselves in many countries around the globe and have achieved some electoral success.
The political term green was used initially in relation to die Grünen (German for "the Greens"), a green party formed in the late 1970s. The term political ecology is sometimes used in academic circles, but it has come to represent an interdisciplinary field of study as the academic discipline offers wide-ranging studies integrating ecological social sciences with political economy in topics such as degradation and marginalization, environmental conflict, conservation and control and environmental identities and social movements.
Studentenverbindung (German: [ʃtuˈdɛntn̩.fɛʁˌbɪndʊŋ] ) or studentische Korporation, often referred to as Verbindung, is the umbrella term for many different kinds of fraternity-type associations in German-speaking countries, including Corps, Burschenschaften, Landsmannschaften, Turnerschaften, and Catholic fraternities. Worldwide, there are over 1,600 Studentenverbindungen, about a thousand in Germany, with a total of over 190,000 members. These fraternities are organized by umbrella groups. In them, students spend their university years in an organized community, whose members stay connected even after graduation. A goal of this lifelong bond (Lebensbund) is to create contacts and friendships over many generations and to facilitate networking. The Lebensbund is very important for the longevity of these networks.
Their autonomous and grassroots democratic Convent is also an important similarity of all student corporations. Apart from the Lebensbund and the Convent, every Studentenverbindung also has a so-called Comment (borrowed from French for 'how'). The Comment is a body of rules that organize various aspects of fraternity life such as the Couleur, academic fencing (Mensur), and general rules of conduct.
The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a left-wing green Australian political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third-largest political party in Australia by vote and the fourth-largest by elected representation. Following the 2025 Australian federal election, Larissa Waters serves as Leader of the Greens and Mehreen Faruqi serves as deputy leader.
The party was formed in 1992 as a confederation of eight state and territorial parties. In their early years, the party was largely built around the personality of well-known Tasmanian politician Bob Brown, before expanding its representation substantially in the early part of the 21st century. The party cites four core values as its ideology, namely ecological sustainability, social justice, grassroots democracy, and peace and non-violence. The party's origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia, the Franklin Dam controversy, the Green bans, and the nuclear disarmament movement. The party began with the United Tasmania Group, one of the first green parties in the world.