Economic and Political Freedom and Market Alienation: A Comparative Study of Bulgaria, China, and the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT The construct of Consumer Alienation has attracted the interest of several researchers who have used it to assess consumer attitudes toward business in general. Alienation-the degree to which a consumer has negative beliefs about business in general and is alienated from it-and its associated measurement are employed to assess the relationship between political and economic freedom and the degree to which consumers believe businesses are responsive to their needs and wants. Three countries, representing very different levels of development, are examined to determine whether consumer alienation is related to economic and political freedom. China represents a country with very limited freedom, Bulgaria has limited freedom, and the United States represents a country with a high degree of economic and political freedom. Expectations derived from prior research suggested that we should find substantial differences in alienation between the three samples. Our hypothesis, based on the understanding that...