Nader, Ralph

Nader, Ralph (1934–), consumer advocate.Ralph Nader dominated the U.S. consumer movement during the last third of the twentieth century. Born in Winsted, Connecticut, to Lebanese immigrant parents, Nader graduated from Princeton College and Harvard Law School and began his law practice in Hartford. He first came to public attention in 1965 with Unsafe at Any Speed, an indictment of the design of the General Motors Corvair automobile and of the automotive industry's more general failure to attend to the “second collision,” the impact of occupants with the inside of the vehicle in an accident. This book and Nader's congressional testimony played a key role in passage of legislation in 1966 allowing the federal government to set vehicle‐safety standards.

Nader branched out quickly from his initial interest in auto safety, and his efforts resulted in a proliferation of federal consumer‐protection legislation during the 1960s and early 1970s, including the 1972 act creating the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission. Nader also established numerous consumer organizations, including the Center of Auto Safety, Health Research Group, and Public Citizen, Inc., staffed by young activists nicknamed “Nader's Raiders.” His legislative influence faded after 1977, following a failed, acrimonious effort to create a federal consumer protection agency.

Nader's determination and idealism elicited both admiration and condemnation. While his achievements won praise, he was criticized as unwilling to compromise, insensitive to the costs of his consumer‐protection initiatives, and excessively beholden to trial lawyers (the latter connection allegedly explaining his antipathy to no‐fault auto insurance).

His activist energies undiminished, Nader in the early 1990s campaigned against trade agreements that he believed jeopardized hard‐won consumer, environmental, and labor protections. In 1996, he ran as the Green party's candidate for president, refusing contributions and urging campaign finance reform. He received 685,128 votes. Again the Green party presidential nominee in 2000, he received 2.7 million votes. Had it not been for Nader's 97,488 votes in Florida, the Democrat Al Gore would almost certainly have carried the state and won the presidency. By 2004, when Nader again ran for president, his earlier reputation for consumer advocacy was eroded by accusations that he had become an ego‐driven political spoiler.
See also Environmentalism; Foreign Trade, U.S.; Legal Profession; North American Free Trade Agreement.

Bibliography

Hays Gorey , Nader and the Power of Everyman, 1975.
David Bollier , Citizen Action and Other Big Ideas: A History of Ralph Nader and the Modern Consumer Movement, 1989.

Robert N. Mayer

; Updated by

Paul S. Boyer