Political consumerism: A comparative analysis of established and developing democracies

Abstract

Research on political consumerism has focused predominantly on highly developed democracies. This focus has led to theoretical explanations closely connected to the social and political transformations of advanced industrialized democracies. In times of globalization and individualization, political consumerism is assumed to originate in political distrust stemming from perceived governance gaps. Recently, political consumerism has become a more frequent form of political participation in the Global South and a research topic attracting increased attention. The inclusion of the Global South requires a re-evaluation of political distrust as a general stimulus for political consumerism because of its conceptual links to socio-economic contexts in the Global North. This article provides such a re-evaluation and thereby advances the comparative analysis of political distrust as an important impetus of political consumerism in established as well as developing democracies.

The pro‐environmental consumer discourse: A political perspective on organic food consumption

“…The average age is 47 years old, and the participants hold a high educational level. This sociodemographic structure is consistent with other studies (Copeland & Boulianne, 2020; Gundelach, 2020; Nonomura, 2017). In other words, political consumers are better educated, with more time available which allows them to develop their civic skills (Copeland, 2014).…”

“…Namely, being highly educated and well informed, middle‐aged, from different origins, and with occupations related to nature, sustainable agriculture and organic trade. Likewise, other studies contributed to the outlining of the profile of political consumers as well‐educated citizens (Copeland & Boulianne, 2020; Gundelach, 2020; Nonomura, 2017). These middle‐aged consumers are also more inclined to engage in political consumption (e.g., Copeland & Boulianne, 2020; Nonomura, 2017).…”

“…A second line of research is, moreover, interested in exploring the political dimension of the consumer (Copeland & Boulianne, 2020; Gundelach, 2020; Reganold & Wachter, 2016). Table 2 summarizes the latest studies conducted while adopting this last approach.…”

“…Bossy (2014, p. 179) defines political consumption as ‘a social movement in which a network of individual and collective actors criticise and try to distance themselves from traditional consumerism by politicising the act of purchasing in order to seek and promote other types of consumption’. Moreover, Gundelach (2020) argues that consumption is used by critical and mobilized citizens who are disappointed with the passiveness of political institutions in rethinking and developing formal devices concerning the protection of the environment, animal welfare, fair trade, labour practices or the origin of products.…”

Boycotting and buycotting food: new forms of political activism in Spain

“…Consumers who have a high interest in issues related to politics are more likely to engage in practices related to product or brand rejection, as also are those who make food choices driven by ethical or environmental convictions. The results also indicate that these types of consumers express a high level of distrust towards big businesses and government, while they trust NGOs the most, as noted by other researchers (Ropaul, 2018;Gundelach, 2019).…”