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Voting at the Marketplace: Political Consumerism in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Fabián Echegaray
Fabián Echegaray*
Affiliation:
Market Analysis, Brazil
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Abstract

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Politicized consumer choice among brands and products is increasingly accepted as a novel mode of nonconventional political participation. However, scholars often overlook developing societies and seldom discuss consumers' perception of the marketplace as a political arena. This study reviews evidence of political consumerism in Latin America, measuring individuals' perceptions of corporations as agents that affect public goods, examining feelings of political efficacy over corporations, and analyzing motivations behind market-based activism. Research is grounded on representative samples of urban adults from Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Logistic regression confirms political consumerism as driven by distrust of government and concomitant engagement with politics, suggesting a diversified repertoire of individual political action in Latin America.

Resumen

Resumen

La politización del consumo favoreciendo o castigando empresas en función de consideraciones socio-ambientales o éticas viene ganando terreno como modalidad de participación política. Sin embargo, los estudios sobre el tema han ignorado las sociedades en desarrollo y entre los académicos latinoamericanistas persiste una visión que niega cualquier entidad política o papel cívico a las acciones individuales emprendidas desde el mundo del consumo. El presente artículo discute la evidencia sobre la existencia de una politización del consumo en América Latina ilustrando la intensidad con que los individuos perciben a las corporaciones como agentes políticos, examinando los sentimientos de empoderamiento consumidor frente a las empresas y analizando las motivaciones detrás del activismo de mercado. La investigación se apoya en muestras representativas de la población adulta urbana de Argentina, Brasil y México. El análisis multivariado usando regresión logística revela que el consumo político es estimulado por la desconfianza en las instituciones políticas y por el involucramiento personal con la política tanto en términos de interés político como de participación cívica. Los resultados respaldan una interpretación de la politización del consumo como parte de un proceso más amplio de diversificación del repertorio de actuación individual con relación a temas de alcance público en América Latina.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , 2015 , pp. 176 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

Thanks to Fatima Portilho, Michele Afonso, Rodolfo Sarsfield, and three anonymous LARR reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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