Voters or Consumers: Imagining the contemporary electorate - Tapa dura

"Lilleker and Scullio's volume address the question of electoral choice from the economic perspective of the voter as consumer. Locatin their work within the political marketing literature, the two editors investigate if politics is seen by the ordinary citizen as part of a consumption diet. Despite the wide range of approached topics and analyzed countries, the volume is homogenous due to the basic common structure. Beyond such an easy to follow and clear format, the innovation of this book resides in the identification of new relationships between the public and politics. A furhter asset of the volume is the two-sided approach of the same issues and thus providing the reader with a comprehensive set of analytical tools. With a homogenous structure, clear writing style, logical and empirical connections between chapters, and with a systematic approach of the triadic relationship of voter-citizen-consumer, this book addresses relevant issues in the literature of voting behavior and challenges existing beliefs. By doing so, it provides a broader picture that makes political science students and scholars further delve into the topic." Sergui Gherghina, Leiden University, CEU Political Science Journal, Vol. 5, Issue 3, September 2010

This edited collection seeks to map current thinking and practice in order to assess the extent to which the consumer, as opposed to the voter, should now to be elevated to a central position within our understanding of the relationship between the public and political spheres. The volume will firstly offer an overview of how consumerism has been applied to our understanding of political and voter behaviour so outlining the book's key concepts. The volume then follows a processual approach to developing its analysis, offering essays that explore contrasting critical perspectives on the topic. The group of essays focus on conceptualising political consumerism; the next look at how political organisations use the tools of positioning and branding, so developing an overview of consumer-driven political behaviour. The focus then moves to the nature of political communication, both by parties and the media, and how this reflects the neo-liberal ontological perspective that encourages voting to be treated as part of consumer behaviour. Finally the book turns to the voter-consumer, looking firstly at the processing of messages and how this can be analysed from a consumerist perspective; and finally on voting behaviour itself, exploring the extent to which rational choice and economic models of voting have been increasingly a reflection of a consumerist perspective. Each chapter will approach the subject from a discrete perspective which will be outlined within its introduction. However the chapters will each explore the following: * Whether parties or voters are approaching one another using consumerist perspectives; * How this can be mapped empirically through specific examples or case studies; * The extent to which consumer behaviour models and perspectives help us understand voter or party behaviour.