Az etikus fogyasztás mint a közügyekben való részvétel
Ethical Consumption as Public Participation

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the recently appeared phenomenon of ethical consumption in Hungary. O ne of the major consequences of political and economic globalisation is that a growing role is assigned to the market in the solution of social problems. There is parallelism between the declining power of governments and classical, participatory political institutions, and the growing importance of the new political functions of the market. Ethical consumerism, value oriented instrumental shopping behaviour is an example of how market power is used as a political tool. The author argues that ethical consumption is a form of public participation. The article states that ethical consumers, compared to other citizens, are more likely to join boycotts and social forums, and more likely to consider them as efficient tools of representation; ethical consumers assign importance to the use of traditional political institutions, such as parliamentary elections, however, they doubt its efficiency; evidence is found about the complementary nature of ethical consumerism and the usage of traditional political institutions. The findings of the paper are based on the analysis of data of a representative survey about ethical consumer and political attitudes.

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