Grassroots approach to politics

Essentially the term grassroots is used freely and broadly without a plan to implement the so-called grass roots approach! Quite often I hear someone utter the term without knowing exactly what it means: it is a tag-line, a coined phrase, but with no meaning. Grass roots means one thing to me it means reaching out and connecting with the individuals who will build the party from the ground up which is often a problem for political parties who would prefer to design the party from the top down.