Quilt or quilts : do the national environmental organizations speak for the grassroots environmental organizations

This thesis asks whether or not the national environmental organizations represent the interests of the grassroots environmental organizations. In order to answer this question another must first be addressed: how do the two wings differ? This study uses data collected from local grassroots activists who attended Stop The Poisoning (STP) workshops sponsored by Highlander Research and Education Center in the fall of 1990. This original data is used to compare the grassroots activists with national environmental activists as they have been represented in previous studies of environmental activism. I compare my data with the previous literature in order to assess the linkages between national and grassroots participants in the Environmental Movement. The hypothesis is that these two wings are different, with local activists more strongly supportive of political and economic democracy (consistent with the oppositional model of a power-elite political structure) and the national organizations tending toward stronger support for the existing political-economic system (in line with a pluralist model of the political structure). Confirmation of the hypothesis would indicate that in their lobbying efforts, the national groups do not adequately represent the participatory interests of the local organizations. The analysis of this thesis concludes that the hypothesis is supported.