Consumer sovereignty and interests

The interest conception of consumer sovereignty

As a starting point for the discussion of various conceptions of consumer sovereignty, let us consider a particular conception that both constitutes a widely held interpretation of consumer sovereignty and offers at least initial promise of being suitable to economic evaluation and optimization. This conception is the principle that what is produced, how it is produced, and how it is distributed are to be determined by consumer preferences expressed through individual choices in a free market. A free market is one where there is no collective control over what is produced or over how the output is distributed. (This is intended merely as a definition of what is conventionally meant by “free market,” not as a justifiable conception of economic freedom nor even as the only possible meaning of “free market,” since the latter could conceivably also refer to the market's freedom from monopoly power, from control by the capitalist class, etc.)

The basic reason for treating this conception as potentially more suitable than others is that consumer preferences expressed through free-market choices can be taken to be an initially plausible representation of the interests of individuals in relation to production and distribution. This interpretation implies that interests are taken to be the supreme determinant of production and distribution.