Taking Consumers Seriously: Two Concepts of Consumer Sovereignty
Author(s)
Korthals, Michael
Abstract
Governments, producers, and international free trade organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) are increasingly confronted with consumers who not only buy (or don’t buy) goods, but also demand that those goods are produced conforming to certain ethical (often diverse) standards. Not only safety and health belong to these ethical ideals, but animal welfare, environmental concerns, labor circumstances, and fair trade. However, this phantom haunts the dusty world of social and political philosophy as well. My principal argument is that analysis or justification of norms or principles is not sufficient to get a synthesis or construction of ethical solutions: we need some value orientation to guide us in balancing the different ethical claims by solving an ethical problem. Secondly, I defend the argument that not only (rational) public debates, but intensive commitments of both producers and consumers in every link of the chain in so called care practices or consumer councils can enhance confidence in the food production system and the way we extract our daily intake from nature.
