Fragmentation or Coordination: The Role of Organized Consumers in Challenging Business Authority.

The global economy is supposed to work against a backdrop of rules enabling exchanges and building trust into different types of relations. This does not necessarily imply that there is any great enthusiasm for formulating a global consumer policy in the global business community or that serious effort is being made to integrate consumers into the decision-making structures of relevant international organizations. In this paper we examine the key players involved in producing new principles and rules guiding this field â€" including civil society by the way of consumer organizations, and other relevant outfits involved in consumer affairs. On the one hand consumers can be a dynamic force in bringing consumer agendas into global politics, but on the other hand consumers are largely regarded as an underprivileged group, incapable of defending themselves and without much, if any, influence on policy. Consequently, we analyze whether consumers are in a position to effectively coordinate interests at the global level, and whether they manage to build alliances of advocacy with other civil society groups to challenge business authority. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]