UW Political Science Professor Aseem Prakash and his colleague Nives Dolšak from the UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs contributed a guest article to The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog. The article is titled “Yes, consumers can change public policies – sometimes. Here are the challenges.” Prakash and Dolsak note that “political consumerism can shape corporate policy only in very specific circumstances.” They then go on to explain the challenges political consumerism faces. Among these challenges, they argue, are that “social isolation is discouraging” meaning that individual consumers might not believe their action will have an impact and that “free riders can pretend to join the effort, at little cost.” Read their article to learn more about the circumstances under which political consumerism can impact policy.
The article was published on The Washington Post website on February 27, 2017. The Monkey Cage is a blog that relies upon political science research “to make sense of the circus that is politics.” It was named 2010 Blog of the Year by The Week and a 2012 Best Blog by Time.