Is Free Trade Vigilantism?

As a democratic society, we in the US have adopted the steps of the democratic process to change the laws and positions our government holds on a multitude of issues. Whether a population accepts or rejects its government’s position on a particular issue, the fact is usually determined through a fair voting and transparent legislative process. However, issues arise when our legal democratic system fails us: Are members of a population obligated to follow that process or at least made to wait, the often slow progress time associated with it, and put whatever concern they have on the backburner? Some people would answer a flat yes to that question but not everybody agrees. Fair trade, by advertising the wrongs of an industry and advocating the abandoning of “non moral” production companies to consumers, actively forgoes the democratic process in favor of a more direct, active and targeted campaign to discredit an organization or an industry practice in order to bring about perceived positive change, not through the legal process but a social one.

The labeling system in that respect is one of these movements who seeks to bring about positive change not through a determined legal process but by using companies’ reputations and their stakeholder’s interests as leverage to achieve a goal whether it be fair trade or big pharma’s global impact. This may sound like vigilantism and it may be called that by those who disagree but in the words of Hassoun “It is not generally permissible to consume in ways that hurt people, and the standard view is that it is, generally, at least permissible, if not morally required, for people to promote positive change; compensate for their role in sustaining institutions that violate, or fail to live up to, their obligations; and avoid complicity in rights violations through ethical consumption.”[1] In truth fair trade is no more vigilantism than it would be to stand up to a bully, it is simply an ethical and profoundly useful practice that helps millions of people around the world as the choice of supporting fair trade production in lieu of goods produced using unfair labor practices is an important way for any and every one individual to make sure that every man or woman’s work is valued equally.

No one person can discount the use and general good that comes from being able to have a legal process through which proper and fair adjudication can occur. However, consumers using their bargaining power to promote a conception of the common good to force companies to live up to what consumers believe are their moral duties as is done with the GHI constitutes the social aspect of what in other circumstances drives even the legal process, the will to do well by others and the belief that it is our duty to do so.

References:

1. [1] Hassoun, “Consumption and Social Change: The Case of Global Health Impact Certification”, 2012: pg 2-3