Political Consumerism in Comparative Perspective

Political consumerism is an important form of political participation in which citizens use market choices to express political concerns and influence global economic and political institutions. Adopting a comparative perspective, the Element integrates evidence from a meta-analysis, global survey data, and original cross-national research.

Political consumerism is an important form of political participation in which citizens use market choices – boycotting and buycotting – to express political concerns and influence global economic and political institutions. Adopting a comparative perspective, the Element integrates evidence from a meta-analysis (109 studies and 1,300 tests), global survey data (66 countries and 97,000 respondents), and original cross-national research (5 countries and 7,500 respondents). Using each data source, the authors examine the roles of resources (education, income, and information/news), engagement (political interest, ideology, and environmental concern), and mobilization (online group ties and offline organization membership) in political consumerism and how these factors vary across countries in explaining political consumerism. The authors find that organizational membership, group ties on social media, political interest, and political ideology are consistent covariates of boycotting and buycotting, whereas education, information/news, and environmental concern depend on the country, political context, campaign, and activity (boycotting or buycotting).