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The Emergence of the Accidental
Citizen: Implications for Political
Marketing
Richard Scullion
a
a
Bournemouth University , Poole, UK
Published online: 20 Nov 2010.
To cite this article: Richard Scullion (2010) The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen:
Implications for Political Marketing, Journal of Political Marketing, 9:4, 276-293, DOI:
10.1080/15377857.2010.518062
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The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen:
Implications for Political Marketing
RICHARD SCULLION
Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
The central argument developed in this paper is premised on the
belief that, in the life experiences of individuals, we find a messy
interface between politics and consumption, where, often uninten-
tionally, we take on citizenly roles and have civic experiences in
market spaces as consumers. Flowing from this is the emergence
of what the author calls the accidental citizen, where consumer
actions increasingly contain political qualities and, just as impor-
tantly, these experiences are acknowledged and reflected on as
such. The paper presents an argument that rejects the dominant
discourse that contrasts notions of consumer and citizen. This
position of contrast is the established position taken in the political
science literature that considers citizenship predominantly in
terms of legalistically based relations between individuals and
the state (Offe, 1999), and, given that political marketing
developed as an addendum to this body of work, the view of
consumer contrasting with citizen underpins much political mar-
keting thinking too. The paper, based on more holistic interpreta-
tions of the core notions of citizen and consumer, provides
examples that illustrate a merging of consumption and politics
in the everyday lives of individuals, positing that the accidental
citizen can act as a catalyst for further political action, and as
such, is an important concept with widespread consequences for
the discipline of political marketing.
KEYWORDS citizen, consumer, political consumerism, political
marketing
Address correspondence to Richard Scullion, Media School, Bournemouth University,
Talbot Campus, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK. E-mail: rscullion@bournemouth.ac.uk
Journal of Political Marketing, 9:276293, 2010
Copyright # [2010] Crown copyright
ISSN: 1537-7857 print=1537-7865 online
DOI: 10.1080/15377857.2010.518062
276
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INTRODUCTION
Many in Western democracies are increasingly engaged in citizen-like
experiences within market spaces, for example where issues of child labor
influence consumer brand choice. At the same time, there has been a market-
ization of the political sphere, for example, with the increased use of adver-
tising and public relations agencies by political parties. As a result, the
division between our lives as consumers and as voters has become blurred.
This development has consequences for the relationship between what it
means to be a citizen and a consumer (Beck and Beck-Gurnsheim, 2002;
Bauman, 1998; Giddens, 1991). This phenomenon feeds concerns about
electoral engagement (Dahlgren, 2003; De Botton, 2004; Scullion, 2006).
However, this paper focuses on one aspect of this relationship by consider-
ing the consequences of the fusing of and the conscious connectivity of
politics and the consumer in the everyday lives of individuals, specifically
in terms of reappraising the boundaries and utility of political marketing as
a scholarly discipline. Lilleker and Scullions (2008) collection of work makes
a compelling case for asking such questions about the relationship between
marketing and political theory. The specific argument developed here is pre-
mised on the belief that we find in the life experiences of individuals a messy
interface between politics and consumption, where, often unintentionally,
we take on citizenly roles and have civic experiences in market spaces as
consumers. Flowing from this is the emergence of what I call the accidental
citizen, where consumer actions increasingly contain political qualities and,
just as importantly, where these experiences are acknowledged and reflected
on as such. This paper argues that this reality has important ramifications for
political marketing that, thus, might better be conceptualized as a hybrid
rather than a cross-disciplinary body of work.
First, in order to contextualize the argument, a brief outline of the
growth of political marketing is offered. The paper then sketches out the
development of the citizen-consumer relationship initially characterized
by difference and then by the dominance of the consumer. The dominant
discourse of consumer over citizen is questioned and a hybrid position is
suggested, wherein the notion of acting in a citizenly manner can survive,
and at times, even thrive within consumer culture. This claim is not itself
new: being good consumers not only has a long tradition but should
be considered positively, given that it generates a sense of empowerment
(Schudson, 1998). Indeed, one of President Bushs public statements
immediately after the September 11, 2001, attacks was to ask all citizens
to show their patriotism by shopping in New York. The original contri-
bution of this paper is in the development of the following argument. Con-
sumer and citizen are being evermore fused together in the everyday lives
of individuals, often without initial intent on the part of the individual.
The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen 277
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Emerging from this is the idea of the accidental citizen, who can act as a
catalyst for political action. This has resulted in a change in the character
of citizenship and consumption, and because of these changes contempor-
ary politics should itself be reconceptualized. The paper concludes by
suggesting that if the meaning of politics and the site of political action
have shifted, the ways we try to understand them must alter too. Finally,
it offers initial thoughts on how these developments might impact political
marketing as a scholarly discipline.
DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL MARKETING
Historically, political marketing developed in large part as a response to
dealignment and related concerns about political engagement originally high-
lighted in the political science literature (Heath, Jowell, and Curtice, 1988;
Teixeira and Teixeira, 1992; Denver, 1997). It was an attempt to respond to
the challenges of perceived disengagement premised on the idea that market-
ing is about making connections between producer and customer, and as
such, it offered new solutions in a political context (Newman, 1999; Butler
and Collins, 1999). This cross-disciplinary body of work applied both market-
ing theory and sensibilities to the political domain. Political marketing
scholars used concepts, tools, and language from marketing in an overtly
political context to help both describe events and prescribe future actions
(OShaughnessy, 2001). Initially, interest was focused on electoral campaign
strategies (Mauser, 1983), but with the development of the permanent cam-
paign (Blumenthal, 1982) it has subsequently been applied more widely.
Political marketing has placed great emphasis on the communication aspects
of the marketing mix with, for example, Newmans The Marketing of the
President (1999) and Scammells Designer Politics (1995). Ideas from the cor-
porate world of marketing have seeped into the political arena in the last 20
years, with scholars evermore focused on strategic management issues, for
example, looking at service delivery (Butler and Collins, 2001), at media
management (Negrine and Lilleker, 2003), and at the whole organizational
planning cycle (Baines, Harris, and Lewis, 2002). Political marketing now
covers the professional management of all aspects of political parties, from
policy formation, internal organizational structure, external message control,
mechanisms to control service delivery, and a rigorous system to collect and
analyze how the messages and policy actions are internalized by the various
stakeholders (Lilleker, Jackson, and Scullion, 2006). This development per-
haps hit what some consider a nadir, others a zenith, with the bold normative
claims of Lees-Marshment (2004), who advocates a market orientation for all
political actors all of the time. This call for a paradigm shift effectively seeks to
preference above all else a political system designed to determine the needs
and wants of the groups of electors being targeted and to then deliver on
278 R. Scullion
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these promises so that the customer base remains satisfied with the partys or
candidates offering.
THE CITIZEN-CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP
A synoptic account of the historic development of the citizen-consumer
relationship affords critical difference to the two notions. In the political
sciences, citizenship is predominately considered in a restricted manner as
being about the legalistic relational arrangements between a subject and
the state (Hinich and Minger, 1997; Pattie and Seyd, 2003); thus, the focus
is on appropriate entitlements and responsibilities. Marshalls (1964) seminal
work affords citizenship with a trio of rights: personal freedom, participation
in political processes, and a sharing of the benefits from societal wealth. The
concept is considered to be something beyond individual self-determination
because, as Turner (2001) makes clear, the benefits of citizenship result
largely from the collective development of a civil society. Agency is manifest
through voice, and decision making involves due consideration to justice,
equality, and the widest possible consequences. While easily seen in direct
opposition, the consumer is considered a free choice maker in the market
(Slater, 1997), emphasis is on rights and limited obligations, agency is rea-
lized through exit strategies, and choice is based on individual preference.
Consumption is rooted in self-interest, while citizenship takes its inspiration
from a regard for a broader public. The citizen is based on the trust of others,
the consumer in self-reliance (Sennett, 1998). Lasch (1978) argues that the
two positions develop different cultural values and norms. This position of
contrast, of making rare the idea of being a citizen, is important because it
has been the established position taken in the political science literature
(Hay, 2002), and given that political marketing developed as an addendum
to this body of work, the view of consumer contrasting with citizen under-
pins much political marketing thinking too.
More recently, the dominance of consumption over other life spheres has
emerged. Historian Lizabeth Cohen argues that people are now bringing
market expectations to their appraisals of the government itself . . . judging it
by the personal benefits they, as segmented purchasers, judge consumer
offerings (2003, p. 344). The market offers the appearance of a nondiscrimi-
natory structure and opportunity to express ones agency (Edwards, 2000) and
has come to be conceptualized as a totalizing logic (Kozinets, 2001). The mar-
kets most powerful vesselscontemporary global brandsincreasingly carry
multiple meanings, allowing us a sense of autonomy (Valentine and Gordon,
2000). Agency is frequently, and perhaps most tellingly, demonstrated to each
other through the autonomous choices we face and make, as evidenced in our
consumer culture. Our notion of free choice is well matched to market envir-
onments; for example, very little consumer choice is perceived as obligatory.
The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen 279
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Sovereignty as consumer is manifest in a sense of continually renewed power
and importance each time we make a decision. As Fitchett (2004) argues,
These characteristics reassure and empower customers by providing a space
where they are able to exercise a greater sense of individual will and authority
than is normally possible in other environments (p. 303). Meaningful engage-
ment is found in spaces where a sense of proficiency in the discourse exists, in
markets rather than political sites (Couldry, 2004). Such views privileging con-
sumer over citizen might be comforting to marketing scholars, as it suggests
that the space they are most familiar with, the market, has increased potency
over the space they have recently moved into, politics. On the surface at least,
the discourse of a marketization of politics affords credibility to the discipline
and offers confidence to those who contribute to it.
COMBINING NOTIONS OF CITIZEN AND CONSUMER
In this paper, I have taken a sociocultural view of citizenship, beyond the
idea of political man (Rieff, 1966), better described as active citizenship
(Pattie and Seyd, 2003), where participation in public spheres includes intent
on the betterment of society (Hay, 2002). While acknowledging the softness
of the concept of consumer (Gabriel and Lang, 1995), in this paper I use the
term to mean the burgeoning spheres of life whereto paraphrase the social
theories of Bauman (1992), Beck (1992), and Giddens (1991)we define
much of who we are, think we are, and want to be through our practices
of acquiring goods in the market. Taking this perspective, it is not surpris-
ing that scholars have begun to adopt what might be called a hybrid position,
where we look beyond difference to understand the nuanced relationship
between citizen and consumer. Many of the contributions in Lilleker and
Scullions edited book Voters or Consumers (2008) point to some form of
coalescing, with Kesteloot, De Vries, and De Landtsheer linking personaliza-
tion of politics to brand personality, Jackson claiming there is a collapsing of
boundaries (p. 153) between genres of political and entertainment news,
and Scammell reporting that voters attitudes are indeed shaped by their con-
sumer experiences. Clarke (2004) articulates several ways in which consumer
and citizen may coalesce; each alters the traditional view of citizenship and of
consumption. The first is citizen as consumer, where what one has come to
understand and expect as a private consumer ought to be extended to all life
spheres. Next is consumers as multiple-identity holders, including that of
citizen, indicating that we can choose when and where to act as a citizen,
thus changing in quite fundamental ways what the notion means. Finally,
he articulates the notion of consumers as not acting like a consumer, suggest-
ing that what matters to us when we engage in consumption goes well
beyond self-interest and rational choice: consumption as a social and cultural
act. These articulations combine elements from both originally distinct
280 R. Scullion
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concepts. Miles agrees with this combined conceptualization by arguing that
consumerism offers apparently democratic value structures (1998, p. 10).
Here the apparent freedom through our choice making is equated to demo-
cratic values. Being a citizen is now equated with being a socially aware,
responsible consumer who thinks ahead and tempers her decisions by
social awareness . . . and who must occasionally be prepared to sacrifice per-
sonal pleasure to communal well-being (Gabriel and Lang, 1995, p. 175).
Thus, we start to witness a merging of consumer literacy with political liter-
acy. Connections between consumer choices and their potential wider social
consequences are now part of the prevailing discourse. Follesdal (2004)
offers examples of political consumption ranging from personally oriented
decisions not to be involved in certain practices (e.g., the eating of meat)
through to collectively oriented acts that attempt to change other actors
beliefs and practices (e.g., protesting outside livestock establishments).
Consumer choice is a tool for political progress (Micheletti, Follesdal,
and Stolle, 2004, p. 289). The market has appeal as a space for political acts,
since it is open for everyone, low cost [offering] individuali[z]ed engage-
ment (Micheletti et al., 2004, p. xxiv). Consumption, then, is a political site
because it is where preference can be and frequently is expressed. As Arnold
and Thompson (2005) argue, there is much evidence pointing to theatres of
consumption as emancipatory spaces where the consumer makes a critical
contribution to what happens. That is not to say that consumption always
has this purpose or indeed that consumers have to be fully aware of the
political dimensions of their practices.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE ACCIDENTAL CITIZEN
A situation has begun to emerge that might be characterized as politics-lite,
rooted in being a consumer-citizen, rather than politics-heavy, rooted in being
a citizen-consumer. Andersen and Tobiasen (2004) found that a political ges-
ture in the market is attractive, as it is quick, easy, and accessible and offers a
visible output. As Eliosoph (1998) illustrates, consumption acts can connect us
to politics without requiring us to adopt a traditional citizenly role. Thus, from
buying healthy options for your childs lunch, the lack of a sports field at their
school may emerge as salient and you become involved in a longer-term
politicized action. Rather than denying citizenship, being a consumer can
offer outlets where actions and decisions take on civic qualities and can lead
us to consider broader public issues, in essence the accidental citizen. Many
politicized consumer acts require a high degree of coordination and
cooperation; hence, in consumption there is often a requirement for a bond-
ing and recognition of mutuality of benefit in order to succeedin other
words, a civic-ness. The market as a site for political discourse and action is
not new, what is different is the shift in the perceived location of power from
The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen 281
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public to market sphere, and our awareness of this change contributes to the
blurring of what it means to be a citizen and to be a consumer in contempor-
ary society. This paper provides examples illustrating this merging of con-
sumption and politics in the everyday lives of individuals, which reinforces
the argument that the accidental citizen has important consequences for those
investigating contemporary politics.
EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES THAT MERGE OUR ROLE AS
CONSUMER AND CITIZEN
The market increasingly treats us as a consumer-citizen, for example,
Bennetts notion of the supermarket state affords brands politicized quali-
ties (2004). Much of this political quality remains dormant; however, it
remains; the consumer and brand owner know that they can activate it. At
times a brands political potency is revealed, for example, the tall-poppy
syndrome is increasingly applied to brands that represent icons of capitalist
success and so stand out, while groups who seek societal change attack
and subvert the advertising messages of consumer brands that have come
to represent a certain lifestyle. In addition, sections of society come to be
defined by their consumption patterns, e.g., the Pink Pound and DINKs.
At the same time, brands increasingly use politicized market positioning,
for example, eco labelling, philanthropic acts, and ethical production
processes. Politicized agency is thus inadvertently offered to consumers
and producers as a result of the contemporary importance afforded to
brands. Brand owners have also added civic qualities to consumer choice
with their plethora of calls to demonstrate our ethical, green, wise, and moral
stance through what and how we consume. It is increasingly hard not to face
political choices as we make our way down the supermarkets aisles or drive
into the gas station to fill up. Making consumer choices with overtly ethical
dimensions may in itself be no more than another criterion some individuals
use to decide which brand best suits their lifestyle. However, it may indirectly
seep into politics by broadening peoples concerns and produce connections
between this sphere and such issues as power, equality, and the way society
is organized. It may add another layer to our consumer sovereignty . . . allow-
allowing us to feel that we are good citizens through being wise consumers.
As Gabriel and Lang (1995) point out, buying into the rhetoric of the rational
autonomous consumer sustains the hegemony of pluralist liberal democracy
itself rooted in a capitalist economic system (Ewen, 1992). Scammells (2003)
notion of beautiful corporations is pertinent here. It places considerable
responsibility on the consumer, who should demand this beautification in
order to continue the buyer=seller relationship. The growth of the brand
owners wishing to occupy an authentic positioning exposes the consumer
to its corporate roots and reveals its history. No longer are we just buying
282 R. Scullion
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the product but also its ethos, its processes, and its stance in the world, thus
affording consumption yet more of a political quality. Brands that are moving
toward greater transparencypart of their quest for authenticityinadver-
tently invite consumers to take on the role of social and ethical critic too.
Our expanded knowledge of brands and their corporate position on, for
example, equal rights for gay and lesbian employees or their involvement
in sweatshop practices and our ability to differentiate market offerings
based on such political positions mean our consumer choices take on a citi-
zenly quality. Zwick, Denegree-Knott, and Schroder (2007) demonstrate that
participation in the stock market can generate a politicization of investors.
Their online buying and selling of personal shares becomes the site of
reflexive, socially responsible, and moral consumer behavior (p. 181). This
is an example of the market connecting individuals to the wider global polit-
ical sphere. The very nature of the mediated discourse reinforces this sense
of consumer-citizen in which the two are so intertwined as to be practicably
inseparable. Here, for the sake of brevity, I offer a few recent examples illus-
trating how political issues are portrayed as consumer choices.
Power to the People ran the front-page headline of the Independent
newspaper on February 23, 2007. The story argued how what it called
consumer militancy was beginning to challenge the power of both the
state and big business. It cited consumers demanding bank charges be
reduced through to football supporters boycotting games in protest at high
prices.
Hold the Government to Account for Its Spending at the Click of a
Button, runs an article in the Daily Telegraph (2006). It talks of a Con-
servative party proposal that would require the Treasury to set up and run
a Web site offering details of all spending over 25,000. The implication
is clear: holding our elected representatives to account through personal
scrutiny of individual project expenditure is at least as worthy as more
traditional civic methods of engagement.
A speaker on Thought for the Day (Today programme, BBC radio 4
October 24, 2007) while discussing the issue of abortion talked of societys
corporate responsibility to raise such a controversial issue, equating the
public sphere directly with what happens in market spaces.
In relation to global climate change, we see choice through the
market as offering a potential solution. The idea of joining a car club
is positioned as a green alternative to buying a car (Guardian, 2006).
We are asked to consider making a switch from traditional ownership
to a form of car-sharing on the basis that for a surprising number of
people it makes sound financial sense to do so.
A press advertising campaign ran in 2008 by CIS Insurance pledges
to carbon offset, the implications are clearby choosing this brand of
car insurance consumers can feel like they have reduced their cars
emissions by 20 percent at no extra cost to you, as the copy in the ad
goes on to say.
The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen 283
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Collectively, these examples, drawn from everyday mediated experi-
ences, serve to not only support the concept of the accidental citizen but also
reject both the arguments that emphasise unbridgeable differences between
consumer and citizen and those arguments preferencing one over the other.
Neither such viewpoint takes sufficient account of contemporary life experi-
ences, where the roles we play out and spaces we occupy inevitably interact
and coalesce and where distinctions are increasingly blurred (Couldry, 2005;
Scullion, 2006). A crucial outcome of this fusing of consumer and citizen is
greater transparency; we increasingly see and experience the connections
the politics of being a consumerand so they shape what it means to live in
contemporary society.
THE ACCIDENTAL CITIZEN AS CATALYST FOR
POLITICIZED AGENCY
To help understand whether the accidental citizen has the potential to act as
a catalyst for deliberate political actions, I turn to social theories of Giddens
(1991, 1998, 2002) and Bauman (1992, 1998), considered leading scholars in
relating consumption and politics. Both are valuable here because they dem-
onstrate how the idea of self-identity is part of a move away from a forensic
or, for Ginzburg (1980), a political identity, to one rooted in psychology and
sociology. Central to Giddens theory is the idea of reflexivity, where we have
an appreciation that social circumstances are not separate from our personal
life. We knowingly participate in a continuous endeavor to establish a sense
of our lives through a narrative of the self, or what Giddens calls chronic
revision. This continuous surveillance can be manifest in a pervasive skepti-
cism, but it can also mean we develop a clearer sense of links between the
various life spheres we occupy. He notes how the notion of public has been
sequestrated by electorate, consequently increasing the areas of life open to
general scrutiny (Giddens, 1991, p. 152). This has led to a heightened
awareness and salience that our personal lives are wrapped up with global
perils. In essence, we have a greater appreciation of how self and other
are meshed together. It is in this way that he argues modern individualization
is not a subversive force for the political sphere; instead it leads to the possi-
bility of emancipatory life politics, where our autonomous decisions about
how we want to structure our lives take account of the presence of a connec-
tion from person to planet (Giddens, 1991, p. 122). In other words, our
individual decisions are shaped by the perceived impact they will have on
others and on the type of society we wish to be part of, and in this way at
least they are considered to have a political or citizenly quality to them.
Bauman talks of contemporary life guided by a consumer ethic where
consumer . . . stands for production, distribution, desiring, obtaining, and
using . . . symbolic goods (1992, p. 223). Not only is he arguing that our
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identity is now based on being consumers but he is also positing that
consumption has come to embrace concerns such as working conditions
and class membership that would once have been considered, if not exclus-
ively then largely, in the political domain, for us to ponder as citizens. Pels
(2003) and Cohen (2003) suggest the political sphere itself has began to
adapt to this context. They point to the growing convergence between
popular culture and politics, arguing that ideology is being replaced with
personalized, emotionalized lifestyle choices in the political sphere. To
Corner (2003), we are witnessing increasingly personalized and aesthetic
politics. A shift toward a citizenship of selective belonging is detected by
Plummer (2003), based on intimate group membership, for example, types
of family preferences, sexuality, and other personal lifestyle choices. In these
ways, areas of our personal lives are increasingly considered to have a direct
impact on the political domain.
Understanding the notion of the accidental citizen through this literature
is of value because the experience of such a condition may generate what
anthropologist Victor Turner calls liminal moments (1982) where thoughts
and desires turn toward radical change. That is to say that having politicized
experiences in the market and reflecting on these may create a space where
the normal rules and patterns of thinking and acting are temporarily sus-
pended. One outcome of this is a greater sense of individual political agency,
to recognize the ability of actors to transform both the environment and the
laws guiding that environment (Hay, 2002, p. 53). Here we should not take
the word law only in its literal sense; Hay is referring to the routines and
customs that shape political practice. Inglehart (1997) argues that a set of
post-materialist values is emerging in late capitalism. Increased affluence
and comfort, as a result of capitalist success in providing consumption
opportunities, is creating a set of attitudes that partly reject the ethos of con-
stant acquisition. Some consumers are choosing to consume less in order to
increase their perceived quality of life. Voluntary simplifiers, by renounc-
ing the more is always better mantra are, in part, demonstrating a search
for an enhanced society and in the process revealing a degree of
civic-ness (Shaw, Newholm, and Dickinson, 2006). Others argue that
reflexive consumers are resisting the control of the capitalist enterprise, by
dint of their recognition of the banality involved in the routine practices of
buying, using, and replenishing (Shankar, Whittaker, and Fitchett, 2006).
The indifference they feel, and the insignificant cultural meaning they attri-
bute to consumption, leaves a void. Contained within the bored and the
skeptical consumer are the seeds of the markets reduced authority, because
their relationship to consumption is characterized by a degree of questioning,
even denial, of the dominant code of conduct for being a consumer. Here,
rejection of the markets grand claims may often occur without any obvious
resort to active opposition. However, if more consumers reject the promo-
tional hyperbole and come to see market spaces simply as one, often tedious,
The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen 285
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facet of their lives, its dominance is diminished. As Benjamins concept of
boredom as ennui demonstrates, it opens up an opportunity for critical
reflection in the crowded spaces of our lives (cited in Moran, 2003, p.
172). Thus, what may start out as a phenomenon devoid of too much polit-
ical characterthe accidental citizen described earlierhas the potency to
act as a catalyst to undermine the command of the commodity inherent
in capitalism by creating room for us to open our minds to alternative modes
of structuring our lives. Warde views consumption in terms of belonging to
loose groupings where we select our own mode of structures and patterns.
Most authors would suggest there has been a decline in the spirit of disci-
pline in the sphere of consumption (2002, p. 64). This informalization
leads to reduced conformity toward patterns of thought and behavior in
the consumer sphere, which may be feeding the skepticism, even cynicism,
now commonplace in the political sphere. However, as Warde (2002) goes
on to argue, imagined communities within consumption have emerged
where a self-imposed sense of regulation has established codes of appropri-
ateness. A single dominant way of being a consumer is replaced with many
ways of being a consumer as we form and develop ties with pseudo-tribes,
from Goths and Greens through to Surfers and Active Greys. Many in
these pseudo-tribes are bound by the positions they hold regarding issues
that have clear political dimensions, such as a desire to buy locally sourced
goods, a concern about advertisements that target children, a belief that
business practice lacks an ethical compass, or a growing reluctance to
accumulate material goods. Political agencyindividuals feeling able to
contribute to shaping the kind of society they wish to be part ofis thus
realized through the weak ties and stronger relationships developed within
the marketplace.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE ACCIDENTAL CITIZEN FOR
POLITICAL MARKETING
Political marketing needs to begin taking full account of the wider implica-
tions of marketized politics and politicized consumption, as, for example,
economic theory has started to consider full costs in balance sheets that
now include environmental expenses of proposed actions. In this last part
of the paper, I outline some of those wider implications stemming from
the emergence of the accidental citizen for political marketing. Considered
individually, they may appear little more than of peripheral interest; I believe
they collectively present significant challenges to the discipline if it is to
develop further scholarly relevance.
If markets are amoral (Slater, 1997) the kind of consumerist political
behavior manifest through the accidental citizen might be seen to replace
an ethical basis for decision making with individual and highly personal
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criteria. Indeed, some argue any conflation of the two concepts destroys the
essence of being a citizen (Savigny, 2008). Sullivan (1994) argues that, as
moral beings, we need to ask whether this governing market, where we
are at best, occasional accidental citizens, is or can offer a sufficiently ethical
base. For example, the growth of private child care provision, considered
from a market perspective, is seen as serving a need and consequently is a
form of the market acting in a responsive manner. However, it does not ques-
tion why this need for child care has grown or ask whether it should be
allowed to grow, nor does it raise concerns about possible broader societal
consequences of serving that need. It simply asks whether the serving of
the need can be met profitably. Political marketing needs to broaden its
consideration to these types of ethical issues by overtly acknowledging that
the more normative aspects of the discipline are grounded in the ideology of
market liberalism.
Meritocracy and efficiency within the market may offer a response to
concerns about retaining values of a democratic character in the contempor-
ary consumer-citizen landscape. Meritocracy can be viewed as the practical
manifestation of an abstract desire for equalityas equality of opportunity,
where ones voice is based on the effort one is willing to make. Roses idea
of the enterprising self (1999) resonates here, where in contemporary
culture we recognize it is our own responsibility to become and make of
ourselves what we can. Rather than consumerism undermining the majestic
collective ideals of citizenship by crushing the critical faculties of individuals
as citizens in favor of individuals as shoppers (Bauman, 2008), the idea of the
accidental citizen located in and through the market indicates that they are
not passive, compliant, or lacking a sociological imagination in their con-
sumption choices. For some consumers, then, especially those who have a
particular personal values orientation, they are using their analytical talents
and their economic power to achieve political reform in 21st-century consu-
merist society. Meritocracy and efficiency may also be a relevant response to
concerns about a lack of democratic value in market spheres if they are con-
sidered virtuous in and of themselves and if we recognize that there is much
inequality of voice in the democratic political sphere, for example, in terms
of social capital (Putman, 2000). Edwards (2000) asks whether a meritocratic
consumer society is a way of overcoming or hiding issues of political
empowerment and equality. By privileging our choice-making capacity
within consumption rather than in the political sphere, are we looking for
solutions or opting out of the search? Political marketing needs to embrace
such challenging questions. With regard to considering efficiency as embrac-
ing an ethical dimension, manyno longer just those on the political right
do attach moral worth to arguments that posit the market as the best way to
deliver material benefits to the majority (Buchanan, 1985; Sen, 1999). A
common concern about this position is articulated by Miller (1997), who
contends that it is no longer in the alienated workspaces but in the modern
The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen 287
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consumer landscapes where the dialectical contradiction of capitalism is
located. Miller is thus arguing that our decision to preference the widest poss-
ible choice in our consumption sphere determines production imperatives
elsewhere in the world. Consumers who opt for the cheapest are in effect
supporting the existing economic system. Efficiency can accordingly be con-
sidered a rhetorical device used by those who possess power as a way of
retaining power. Those in positions of authority determine how the notion
itself is defined and measured. Thus, efficiency is manifest through ROI
and shareholder value rather than, for example, through the extent of
equality or cooperation achieved.
The conception of audience is also called into question with this
merging of market and political spheres. Those who help to craft political
messages need to recognize that there is less certainty in distinguishing
between what is and is not considered political. This means accepting a
loss of control because it is the electorate who ascribe the political elements
of their experiences, not the political classes. In other words, what is deemed
to be part of the political domain is increasingly and knowingly determined
by individuals who perceive that most of their lives occur outside the tra-
ditional political sphere. Consequently, any messages that are developed
to be only political or only commercial may be rejected because they do
not reflect the audiences reality, where a sense of connectivity between
them as consumers and them as citizens is ever more recognised. Several
studies of recent political advertising campaigns suggest that a commerciali-
zation and marketization is taking place with such messages (Scammell,
1999; Scullion and Dermody, 2005; Negrine, Mancini, Holtz-Bacah, and
Papathanassopoulos, 2007). On the surface, this might be considered an
appropriate response to the changing context outlined in this paper. How-
ever, such consumer messages used in a traditional political context (i.e.,
elections) might be contributing to a reduced civic quality within political
discourse because they fail to reflect the audiences reality, where markets
and politics are knowingly co-constituted. Continued fixation with elections
and set-piece traditional political occasions seems to be a self-imposed and
unnecessary restriction on the discipline.
A final implication offered here for political marketing to consider
is market-driven and politically driven social change. Millions of individ-
ual consumers can change their behavior in similar ways, for example,
moving from landlines to mobile phones only. Public debate and some
kind of majority decision can effect political change, for example,
banning smoking in public buildings. Some, such as Mouffe (1993),
argue that these are qualitatively different, with consumer-driven change
lacking what he calls symbolic dimensions. Given the fusing that the
accidental citizen concept suggests between political and consumer
spheres, careful consideration needs to be afforded to the significance
of this difference.
288 R. Scullion
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CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, I have argued that there are many unintended political conse-
quences flowing from the actions of consumers. Importantly, often small-
scale consumer actions can inadvertently trigger wider politicized action.
The accidental citizen helps us to understand that the two notionscon-
sumer and citizendo not only and always have to be seen as diametrically
opposed. As Gabriel and Lang (1995) argue, such polar views arise as a result
of a mixture of golden age syndrome and ideological motivation. The pre-
vailing discourse sees the rise of oneconsumerismat the expense of the
othercitizenship. Here, that view has been contested by suggesting that the
actual life experience of individuals reveals a messier interface where we,
often unintentionally, take on citizenly roles in market spaces and that our
consumer experiences contain civic qualities. In essence, the claim is that
in the age of the reflexive individual, our life spheres are more evidently
and knowingly merged together, our consuming and politicking are intri-
cately linked in ways that are fashioned by our reactions to the contexts we
face. Political marketing has responded, but only partially, to this reality by
linking marketing theory with mainstream political activity; it may be able
to contribute more to our collective understanding if it makes efforts to fuse
marketing and political theory in order to take fuller account of a context
where marketing in any sphere of life is political and where many acts with
political meaning are now found outside its traditional spherein market
spaces.
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AUTHOR NOTE
Richard Scullion is a senior lecturer in the Media School at Bournemouth
University, where he teaches marketing communications and political
communication courses. He is also a PhD candidate at the London School
of Economics, Media Department, and his thesis looks at electoral choice
from a consumer behavior perspective. He has published widely on the
subject of political marketing and advertising, including editing two books
on the subject, the last being Voters or Consumers: Imagining the Contempor-
ary Electorate (coedited with Darren Lilleker). He is secretary of the Academy
of Marketing special interest group Political Marketing.
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