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Concept
Corporatocracy
Summary
Corporatocracy (ˌkɔrpərəˈtɒkrəsi, from corporate and -κρατία; short form corpocracy) is an economic, political and judicial system controlled by business corporations or corporate interests.
The concept has been used in explanations of bank bailouts, excessive pay for CEOs, as well as complaints such as the exploitation of national treasuries, people, and natural resources. It has been used by critics of globalization, sometimes in conjunction with criticism of the World Bank or unfair lending practices, as well as criticism of free trade agreements. Corporate rule is also a common theme in dystopian science-fiction media.
Historian Howard Zinn argues that during the Gilded Age in the United States, the U.S. government was acting exactly as Karl Marx described capitalist states: "pretending neutrality to maintain order, but serving the interests of the rich".
According to economist Joseph Stiglitz, there has been a severe increase in the market power of corporations, largely due to U.S. antitrust laws being weakened by neoliberal reforms, leading to growing income inequality and a generally underperforming economy. He states that to improve the economy, it is necessary to decrease the influence of money on U.S. politics.
In his 1956 book The Power Elite, sociologist C. Wright Mills stated that together with the military and political establishment, leaders of the biggest corporations form a "power elite", which is in control of the U.S.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs described the United States as a corporatocracy in The Price of Civilization (2011). He suggested that it arose from four trends: weak national parties and strong political representation of individual districts, the large U.S. military establishment after World War II, large corporations using money to finance election campaigns, and globalization tilting the balance of power away from workers.
In 2013, economist Edmund Phelps criticized the economic system of the U.S.
Official source
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