Citizens, Not Customers

by Jim Hutton

Government programs and agencies are increasingly conducting ‘customer satisfaction’ surveys and referring to their ‘customer service’ operations. What’s wrong with that, you might ask? Isn’t that in keeping with the idea of citizen-centered government? Doesn’t that help create exactly the sort of responsiveness and accountability that we’re all looking for?

The answer is ‘no’. Look south, to the United States, and you’ll begin to see why.

Over the past 40 years, there has been a subtle but critical change in American public dialogue. Almost everywhere Americans once used the word ‘citizen’, they now use the word ’customer’ or ‘consumer’. A bit of reflection on the difference between ‘citizen’ and ‘consumer’ explains much about what is happening in the US. ‘Citizens’ have rights and responsibilities, while ‘consumers’, for the most part, have only rights. Thus, the US has become “a nation of victims,” as writer Charles Sykes described it, where fewer and fewer people are willing to take responsibility, and every problem is someone else’s fault.

Of particular concern is that the ‘customer’ mentality is now entrenched in American institutions – government, education, healthcare, media and even art, science and religion. The results are not pretty.

In education, for example, axioms such as ‘keep the customer happy’, and ‘the customer is always right’ have contributed to a wide variety of problems, including a lack of discipline, declining standards, cheating, social promotion of under qualified students, grade inflation, and a focus on building self-esteem rather than character.

In religion, customer-driven doctrine has undermined traditional notions of responsibility, delayed gratification and service, in favor of self-defined notions of spirituality, immediacy and self-esteem.

In the media, consumer-driven journalism has shifted the focus away from truth-seeking and truth-telling – arming the citizenry with the information it needs to participate in a democratic society – to an emphasis on packaging audiences (customers) for advertisers.

In healthcare, commercialization and customerization of the American healthcare industry have created more problems than they have solved and left 40 million people without health insurance.

It’s little wonder, then, that over the last 40 years the percentage of Americans who say they have faith in their institutions has been cut almost in half. World perception is even worse, with numerous studies and surveys suggesting that the US has lost its moral authority. Former President Jimmy Carter recently lamented that, “Everywhere you go [in the world], you hear, ‘What has happened to America?’” Part of the answer is that America’s institutions have largely become education, religion, media, healthcare and government stores, rather than centers of intellectual and moral leadership.

‘Customerization’ is certainly not the only problem with American government, of course, but it is a significant piece of the puzzle. A government official from Kansas City explained why it is such a bad idea: “[The ‘customer’ approach to government] fights against the very elemental nature of government, which is supposed to be a collective effort. If I’m a customer, I get mine and to heck with you, as opposed to ‘What can we do together?’” Volunteerism and a sense of community – cornerstones of effective government – may be lost altogether.

The idea that everyone is a customer and everything in America is for sale – even its national institutions and public property – so permeates the culture that many Americans weren’t sure if Taco Bell was playing a joke when on April Fool’s Day it took out an ad announcing that it had bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Bell Liberty Bell.

More seriously, it’s critical to understand that the commercialization and customerization of public property and services carries with it an underlying belief in the infallibility of ‘the market’. The notion that market forces will solve all of America’s public problems – ranging from failing schools to crumbling prison systems to out-of-control healthcare costs – dominates the American political and economic landscape. But the mindlessness with which free-market ideologies are sometimes applied to public service became stark in 2003, when the Pentagon’s Terrorism Awareness Information Office proposed an online futures trading market in which anonymous speculators would bet on future terrorist attacks, coups and assassinations. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota asked: “Can you imagine if another country set up a betting parlor … sponsored by the government itself … so that people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?” Dorgan said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble convincing people that it wasn’t a hoax.

Another major problem with the customerization of government is that it strongly encourages government leaders to give people what they want and tell them what they want to hear, even at the expense of what they need. In most cases, what people need and what they want from institutions are the same thing. But not always. In fact, they can be opposite. Not coincidentally, ‘telling people what they want to hear’ is a basic tenet of propaganda – not always such a good thing, and often at odds with the very concept of freedom. As George Orwell once said, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

In no way does that mean government officials should be unaccountable or unresponsive. The truth, however, is that social institutions which cater to ‘customers’ almost always begin to pander to their audiences, losing sight of their basic purpose. Ultimately, they become less accountable to their proper mission in society.

At this point in history, Canada’s citizen-driven model of government is probably as good as any in the world. But in order to remain so, its officials need to do at least four things:

1. Remain true to the idea of responsiveness to citizens—not to ‘customers’ or even to ‘clients’

Global advertising, as well social and political forces, are placing more and more of the world’s population in increasingly consumer- or customer-driven environments. In China, for example, largely because of the country’s one-child-only policy, an indulged generation of ‘little emperors’ has the potential to evolve into the greatest consumer cohort in human history. Meanwhile, in nations ranging from Turkey to Thailand, the privatization of traditionally state-owned industries is driving new interest in marketing and consumerism. So the pressure to customerize government will only grow. The solution, however, is to treat citizens as something different and something better than customers.

2. Emphasize responsibilities, as well as rights

Citizens have rights and responsibilities, not just rights, and they need to be gently and constantly reminded of that. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms does a splendid job of outlining citizens’ rights, but says far less about citizen responsibilities.

3. Recognize that ‘the market’ has limits

While a market economy is the best mechanism yet discovered to allocate goods and services efficiently, the concept becomes dangerous when used inappropriately. In the case of things like healthcare, the conditions necessary for a properly functioning market – for example, open access to information and open access to all potential buyers and sellers – simply don’t exist. More important, the purpose of a market, to allocate scarce resources, is not applicable to most social institutions. (Is it appropriate to treat things like government, healthcare, education and religion as scarce resources, available only to the highest bidders?)

4. Don’t be afraid to lead

At times, it is the professional and moral responsibility of those in authority to make judgments about what people need, what will be the best for all concerned, what will protect the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority, and what will be best in the long term rather than just the short term. Canadian government officials have an opportunity to become the world’s model for how to create government that is responsive and accountable, balancing the short-term desires of citizens with the long-term needs of society. To do so, however, will require vigilance, courage, wisdom and leadership to serve citizens rather than customers.


Dr. James G. Hutton, professor of marketing and communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University, is a speaker and consultant. His latest book, The Feel-Good Society: How the ‘Customer’ Metaphor Is Undermining American Education, Religion, Media and Healthcare, is available at amazon.com. He can be reached at hutton@fdu.edu.