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Conclusion

Hope Not Fear

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

Margaret Scammell
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Summary

This book ends as it began, with a spirit of optimism. This is not the Panglossian cheerfulness of some marketing gurus that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds; that good ethical business will pick up the baton dropped by politicians to deliver a greener, more sustainable, more human-rights-conscious world. It is not either simply a personal preference for hope over fear, because it is hope that makes life worth living. Nor is it afraid of the skepticism of realism, since a constant and critical weighing of the good with bad is a necessary condition for genuine optimism. However, it is upbeat about our consumer democracy. Here’s why.

Strong Citizen Commitment to Democratic Values

Public support for democratic values remain strong and, if anything, is rising, despite the huge and continuing concerns at crises of participation and democratic deficits around the globe. The anxiety indicators are well known: declining electoral turnout in many advanced industrial democracies, party memberships collapsing, and survey evidence of mounting public distrust in the formal institutions of politics. Political marketing and aggressive, sensation-seeking media are often cited as contributory factors to our modern dissatisfactions. Specifically, marketing is said to squeeze the scope of public debate, emphasize the negative, and foster naïve individualism over collective solutions (Stoker, 2006; Hay, 2007), while consumer culture generally is alleged to promote “infantile” instant gratification over the “adult” recognition of complexity in negotiation of the public good (Barber, 2007).

Type
Chapter
Information
Consumer Democracy
The Marketing of Politics
, pp. 163 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • Conclusion
  • Margaret Scammell, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Book: Consumer Democracy
  • Online publication: 05 June 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139046107.009
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  • Conclusion
  • Margaret Scammell, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Book: Consumer Democracy
  • Online publication: 05 June 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139046107.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Margaret Scammell, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Book: Consumer Democracy
  • Online publication: 05 June 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139046107.009
Available formats
×