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Journal of Political Marketing

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The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen: Implications for Political Marketing

Richard Scullion
a a

Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

Available 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 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2010.518062

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Journal of Political Marketing, 9:276293, 2010 Copyright # [2010] Crown copyright ISSN: 1537-7857 print=1537-7865 online DOI: 10.1080/15377857.2010.518062

The Emergence of the Accidental Citizen: Implications for Political Marketing

RICHARD SCULLION
Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

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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 unintentionally, 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 importantly, 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 marketing thinking too. The paper, based on more holistic interpretations 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 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 marketization of the political sphere, for example, with the increased use of advertising 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 considering 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 premised 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 contribution of this paper is in the development of the following argument. Consumer and citizen are being evermore fused together in the everyday lives of individuals, often without initial intent on the part of the individual.

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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 contemporary 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

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Historically, political marketing developed in large part as a response to dealignment and related concerns about political engagement originally highlighted 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 marketing 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 marketing 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 campaign (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 corporate 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 perhaps 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

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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 realized 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 underpins 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 nondiscriminatory structure and opportunity to express ones agency (Edwards, 2000) and has come to be conceptualized as a totalizing logic (Kozinets, 2001). The markets 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 environments; for example, very little consumer choice is perceived as obligatory.

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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 engagement is found in spaces where a sense of proficiency in the discourse exists, in markets rather than political sites (Couldry, 2004). Such views privileging consumer 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 surprising 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 personalization 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 consumer 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, suggesting 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

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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 democratic 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 personal pleasure to communal well-being (Gabriel and Lang, 1995, p. 175). Thus, we start to witness a merging of consumer literacy with political literacy. 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 engagement (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 gesture 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 bonding 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

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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 contemporary society. This paper provides examples illustrating this merging of consumption 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 qualities (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 . . . allowallowing 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
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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 authenticityinadvertently 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 citizenly 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 political 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 illustrating 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 Conservative 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.

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Collectively, these examples, drawn from everyday mediated experiences, 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 experiences, 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.
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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 demonstrate 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 skepticism, 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 possibility of emancipatory life politics, where our autonomous decisions about how we want to structure our lives take account of the presence of a connection 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 exclusively 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 suspended. 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 constant acquisition. Some consumers are choosing to consume less in order to increase their perceived quality of life. Voluntary simplifiers, by renouncing 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 attribute 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 promotional hyperbole and come to see market spaces simply as one, often tedious,

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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 political 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 discipline 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 appropriateness. 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 implications 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 question 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 contemporary 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 consumption 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 consumerist society. Meritocracy and efficiency may also be a relevant response to concerns about a lack of democratic value in market spheres if they are considered 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 embracing 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

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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 possible 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 considered 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 traditional 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 commercialization 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. However, 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 individual 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.

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CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, I have argued that there are many unintended political consequences flowing from the actions of consumers. Importantly, often smallscale consumer actions can inadvertently trigger wider politicized action. The accidental citizen helps us to understand that the two notionsconsumer 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 prevailing 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 intricately 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 Contemporary Electorate (coedited with Darren Lilleker). He is secretary of the Academy of Marketing special interest group Political Marketing.