What Is State Capture?

Abstract

Abstract This chapter begins to articulate the core ideal defended in the book: democracy as resisting state capture. This ideal conceives democracy as a set of practices that help to promote the public interest by protecting public power from capture at the hands of any group. The aim of this chapter is to elaborate the core concept of “state capture,” and it begins by examining its relationship to other key terms such as democracy and the public interest, before exploring the very diverse range of forms state capture can take. Defined as the use of public power to pursue private interests at the expense of the public, the concept of state capture is an umbrella term encompassing problems as diverse as regulatory capture, corruption, clientelism, authoritarianism, oligarchy, and racial caste systems, and the chapter draws from historical and social scientific research on all of these phenomena. It then situates these particular literatures within the broader framework provided by two recent comprehensive theories of political economy, both of which demonstrate how pervasive state capture by a narrow elite characterized nearly all state-based societies in human history. Where these theories emphasize the progress achieved by liberal democratic societies in this regard, however, this chapter also stresses the significance of certain forms of capture that persist and even intensify in those societies. Engaging extensively with empirical research, it devotes special attention to two forms of capture that are especially severe and pervasive across all modern democracies: those benefiting categorically advantaged groups and wealthy elites.