Consumarchy

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Consumarchy is a form of social organization that is posed in contrast with consumerist capitalism. Under consumerist capitalism, it is assumed that market mechanisms are inherently guided by the solicitation of consumers' individualistic concerns (e.g., safety, accessibility, affordability of products). This dogma however is substantially disproved by efforts to prevent information about products reaching a consumer of those products, e.g. those on genetically modified organisms. In response many empirical phenomena such as the ecolabel, boycott, buycott have evolved. The increased sophistication of solidarity-based, consumer-sanctioned, regulatory initiatives suggested (to Kysar and Dumas) a new social form was emerging.

As with other uses of market-based methods such as the Natural Capitalism of Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins, consumarchy does not challenge the idea that the individual chooses what social processes to support. It only improves the information and subjects it to verification (perhaps a form of limited collaborative governance).

1 History
2 Characteristics
3 References
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] History

For technical and sociological reasons, marketing historically dealt with aggregates like market segments, target markets, and demand. They traditionally used only blunt instruments like mass marketing, national advertising, assembly line production, and inferencial marketing research. A so-called personal marketing orientation - attempts to market on a one-to-one basis - attempt to treat everyone as an individual.

If taken to the limit, this view would require that product offerings be designed for individual buyers, effectively becoming services not standardized products at all - as these don't serve their exact needs. Innovation, instead of being a process of designing standardized products born from inherent compromises, is transformed into a quest for the perfect match between a bundle of services and individual buyers.

Until recently, this orientation was not practical. Mass production traditionally depended on the standardisation of goods sold. Today however, computers allow personalized marketing. Flexible manufacturing processes allow mass customization. The Internet allows permission marketing and real-time pricing. This overall process is also sometimes referred to as the democratization of goods.

Consumers also have the choice of combining, in their purchasing decisions, the proximate attributes of products (e.g., their price or manufacturing quality) with their peripheral attributes (e.g., the conditions under which they are produced). They can in effect choose comprehensive outcomes, not just culminative outcomes, of their choice. This further reinforces the transformation into a pure service economy, as a key service is the actual reporting of the effects of purchasing on others (victims).

[edit] Characteristics

The recent evolution of these ideas and purchasing and production systems suggests they have no one list of common characteristics. However, they make it increasingly easier for consumers to express their concerns for the welfare of others (humans, other animals, victims of climate change, "the environment" in general) through markets. The broader regulation system encompassing the political and economic aspects of these consumers' initiatives (cf. ethical consumerism, moral purchasing) is referred to (by these authors) as consumarchy [from consummare (Lat.), to consume, and arkhê (Gr.), command.]

Consumarchy is therefore defined by some authors as a regulation system within which corporate behaviour is in part subordinated to consumer demand functions obeying both logics of individualism and voluntary solidarity.[Dumas] By giving politically disenchanted consumers the opportunity to exert new authority on enterprises through a more enlightened selection of consumer goods, it may also be viewed as the center of a nascent political economic order.[Kysar] The political branch of consumarchy is known as political consumerism and focuses on the political pressures applied using buying.

[edit] References

Dumas, M. (2007). "Consumarchy and Corporate Social Responsibility", International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Volume 2 No 3/4.

Kysar, D. A. (2004). "Preferences for Processes: the Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice." Cornell Law School Legal Studies Research Series.