ABSTRACT
The citizen, whose rights and privileges were identified and preserved through political institutions, and who constituted the modern subject of the nation state and represented the central entity of modern political economy, is losing significance and her/his privileged position. As Stuart Ewen proclaimed in the television program, The Public Mind,1 it is no longer the citizen but the consumer who constitutes the unit of analysis, the central entity, or the locus of social discourse in the contemporary world of globalization and globalism. In the world of global markets, the only rights and privileges that transcend all boundaries without the necessity of treaties and accords-such as human rights accords, which may or may not be signed or heeded by arrogant nation states-are those of the consumer in the global marketplace. When consumers speak, especially in unison, even the most powerful corporate and governmental entities listen.
