Megacorporations Make Poor Governments

Can a megacorporation take over the government? Chances are that arrangement would be terrible for everyone.

In Incoming, The Templin Institute discusses the theories and ideas found across alternate worlds.

New episodes every week.

Other Divisions & Branches:

Communications & Media:
🔹 Mailing Address | Unit 144 - 919 Centre St SW Calgary, AB T2E 2P6

Background music: “White Atlantis” by Sergey Cheremisinov. User under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Narration by M.A.R.C.

[EsShinkai]

"President? Do you have any idea how much power I would have to give up to be president?" - Lex Luthor

[Legitpenguins]

A single corporation is extremely unlikely to succeed, but a huge conglomerate of companies seizing power is very believable

[sumthnunreal]

Templin Institute: "Can a company take over a nation?"
United Fruit Company: "Yes. Yes it can."

[leechesinmybreeches]

I got a Stellaris: Megacorp ad on this video.

[karstenschuhmann]

Mining corporations found and run towns for their employees, often they employ some private security. So in a small scale this happens all the time. The more remote this mining town is, the less influence a country will have over this town. In a scenario of space mining the independence could be nearly complete.

Over time one of these independent mining towns could grow into a mega city. The question would be if the corporation would still control it or even want to control it.

[ghastlyghandi]

I mean, megacorps are literally just 1/1 ripoffs of medieval merchant republics that have existed all throughout Southern Europe and some places in Northern Europe, and they’ve lasted for hundreds of years before dying off.

[TheMadmanAndre]

"Antitrust laws are a global standard of international trade."

Disney: "Hold my beer."

[Siriathion]

Stellaris devs:
"...Hold my beer."

[anxietywave]

I feel like this episode of Incoming tends to ignore how corporations get into power. The point of these capitalist cyberpunk dystopias is not to show how Megacorporations become governments but rather how governments become too weak to regulate Megacorporations.

[sebsandwich]

Blade Runner's world is not run by corporations. Rather the corporations have a very big influence on the government (just like real life.) The U.N is even there too. That's one of the reasons why I like it so damn much.

[willydru]

Pretty sure most corporations have learned at this point that it's more advantageous to lobby a government than to try to be one.

[darrenrenna]

"Merchant Kings" by Stephen R Brown backs up this argument very well--talking about the Dutch East India Company's Rule of Indonesia, The Dutch West India Company's founding of Manhattan, The Russian American Company in Alaska, the Hudson Bay Company, Cecil Rhodes South African Company and the British East India Company as mentioned in this video. Corporations ruled a very sizable portion of the Earth and this is largely forgotten because they left very little impact aside from establishing some national borders in a few cases. The regional managers were more concerned with sending furs and spices back to the home countries to meet quotas and raise shareholder dividends than building cities or national identities. The Hanseatic League is a better example of something like a Corporation that governed an area well for some time and could hold its own against Nation States.

[AsleepWarrior]

*Problems with Megacorporation government (Summary of Video)*

*1.* Other countries would put tariffs or trade bans on the megacorporation until it goes bankrupt.

*2.* Developing a private military to take over a country is too expensive to rival current militaries. Trying to beat a trained military with a large budget would be nearly impossible without a huge technological advantage and manpower.

*3.* Nations are founded on principals and values. No one would fight or die for the company just so the CEO can become a little bit more richer.

[jankostrhun]

Forgot about Sepratists from Star Wars. While separatists had many legitimate reasons and their government was arguably more democratic it was also more localized so the council only had the say in civilian affair. The Clone Wars were fought thanks to the droid army made and ran by "sympathetic" members of various megacorporations which led to the various atrocities and war profiteering Separatist army was known for.
This is the way how megacorporation (or a group of them) can run a nation. By not running it, but being of such a vital importance to the nations existence there really is no government oversight.

[nullus]

Fighting for abstract principals and values is really a post-1789 oddity of history. Throughout most of history people fought and died for their monarchs or nobles, who were basically CEOs/private owners of the country.

[jossgoyanko]

A "corporate conquest" wouldn't be a conquest in the traditional sense. A more realistic version could be a scenario of privatization run amuck, where a government starts handing over key aspects of governing over to the private sector in order to save on tax dollars. OCP from RoboCop is actually a pretty good example of this, where the city of Detroit privitized their police force and awarded the contract to run and equip the police to OCP.

[seanmartin]

I think Paradox saw this video and wanted to prove you wrong.

[malem]

I think the "Conglomerate" in Mirror's Edge Catalyst was somewhat plausible. Each company controls a different sector of society. I'm sure if another company rises (if it's even possible) the conglomerate would easily trade one for another.

[bendkok]

I find it strange that you didn't mention the Venetian Empire (or any other merchant republics), which was basically an empire made by merchants.

[somedudenamedluke]

Templin: "Corporations wouldn't make good governments"
Dutch East India Company: *laughs doubtingly*