Consumer or Citizen

State recognizes people as citizens, whereas markets treat people as consumers and value them as customers. Even markets are located within the States. And peoples status as citizens is more overarching than their status as consumers. Thus peoples rights as consumers are interlinked with their rights as citizens; both need to be pro-actively promoted and protected from predatory factors in the market and the State. In particular, poorer citizen-consumers, who do not have the “dollars” to make the market respond to the “one dollar, one vote” principle, do have the right to make the state – and hence the market respond on the “one person one vote” principle. This standpoint also links up the consumer movement with other human rights movement.

In the age of globalization, this realization has become more important than ever before. The former President of Consumers International, Rhoda Karpatkin, said that "Consumer activism is exercising citizenship".