Democracy and markets both reduce choosers to interchangeable statistical objects

Evidence

For just as electoral democracy postulates the equivalence of citizens (each of whom counts as one and only one) within any given party, so market strategies assume the equivalence of buyers (each of whom counts as one) within any given niche. In both cases the choosing subject is a statistical object to be targeted, added to or separated from other individuals. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 738

Categorization

• CANDY: A neat parallel — the citizen-as-statistical-object in voting mirrors the buyer-as-statistical-object in marketing — that lands quickly in conversation.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberal deregulation erodes democracy as politics abdicates to market pressure — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 81; The public-versus-private debate reduces citizens to investors and consumers — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 358