When Private Interests Have Captured the Systems that Govern Us
Sept 5, 2025 | Whitney Shepard & Bryant Sewell
Back in 2012, the late Robert Monks wrote in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance & Financial Regulation that:
“[American corporations] have the power to control the rules under which they function and to direct the allocation of public resources. This is not a prediction of what’s to come; this is a simple statement of the present state of affairs. Corporations have effectively captured the United States: its judiciary, its political system, and its national wealth, without assuming any of the responsibilities of dominion.”
More than a decade later, corporate power has only grown more concentrated. Large corporate actors have deepened their hold over our political systems through the same methods Monks warned us of: runaway CEO pay, the offloading of financial risk onto workers, and billions in lobbying and campaign contributions that bend public institutions to private interests. Too many giant corporations now function beyond meaningful oversight, operating beyond the authority of regulators and, too often, even their own shareholders.
To understand the crises we’re living through — rising authoritarianism, eroding civil rights, deepening inequality — we must look squarely at our economy and the dominant actors within it. The corporate sector is not an innocent bystander. It is the architect, the engine, and too often, the bankroller of the very conditions we are struggling to survive. If we continue to ignore the role of capital in driving harm, we will continue to organize around symptoms instead of the root cause: the concentrated power of the few over the many.
When power is concentrated among a small economic elite, both democracy and capitalism suffer. Markets no longer function freely, and policy no longer reflects the will of the people. What emerges instead is a hybrid system of state-corporate control, where public interest and well-being are sidelined, and long-term risk grows unchecked. To sustain itself, those with concentrated power consume ever more public resources and protections — putting our democratic institutions on the chopping block. This dynamic is the breeding ground for authoritarianism — not a departure from corporate capture, but its logical escalation.
The counter-force to concentrated power is activating our collective participatory power in the systems that govern us.
Our Political and Economic Systems are Meant to Serve Us
In theory, and when our political and economic systems function as intended, our government ensures checks and balances, investors steward capital responsibly, and corporations generate prosperity without destabilizing the foundations we all depend on. Together, they should form the infrastructure for stability, fairness, and shared flourishing.
The Reality: Our Systems Turned Against Us
In reality, concentrated corporate power has hijacked the very systems meant to serve us. Institutions designed to distribute resources fairly and protect the public good have been rigged to benefit those who put private gain above the common interest. Outsized corporate actors, enabled by asset managers and political allies, have captured the levers of both government and markets. The revolving door of lobbyists, regulators, and executives often means that policies meant to balance corporate reach and excess are instead rewritten and leveraged to shield them from accountability. The current systematic targeting of government officials and public servants who attempt to hold the line of accountability illustrates the standard playbook of corporate capture: punish integrity and reward complicity.
We instinctively expect checks and balances in government because we understand the dangers of concentrated power. Yet we rarely demand the same from those who control capital flows within our economy — even though financial decisions shape our jobs, our health, and our climate just as profoundly as laws and policies do. What’s more, we’ve seen laws overturned, ballot measures undone, and public mandates ignored when they threaten corporate interests.
As corporate capture deepens, defending public institutions from private encroachment becomes harder. The result: our hard-won rights, earnings, and futures are stripped away, leaving us feeling powerless and uncertain about how we got here — all the while the corporate drivers behind today’s crises set our direction while escaping the fallout.
Capture by Default, Crisis by Design
Much like the separation of church and state, a healthy democracy requires clear boundaries between corporate influence and public governance. But corporate capture has dissolved those boundaries — embedding private-sector models, metrics, and mentalities into systems designed to serve the public.
Corporate capture doesn’t just weaken public institutions — it actively introduces new industries and business models into our economy that profit from mass suffering and private takeover of public goods. When corporations operate without accountability, they engineer economic models designed to exploit, rather than solve, crises. The clearest and most urgent example is disaster capitalism. Coined by Naomi Klein, disaster capitalism describes the business model of exploiting crises — wars, natural disasters, and economic shocks — to push through sweeping policies, take over public goods, and implement profit schemes that would otherwise face mass resistance. Disaster capitalism is not separate from corporate capture. It is its most dangerous expression.
Over the years, the disaster capitalism model has evolved into a full-scale complex — a network of corporations, government contractors, financiers, and political allies who exploit populations at their most vulnerable moments. The disaster capitalism complex profits off the very crises it has helped manufacture — crises that are generally not natural outcomes, but the predictable results of concentrated corporate power and decades of decision-making that prioritize profit over people:
Climate change feels like random extreme weather — until you connect it to fossil fuel companies pouring trillions into lobbying, denialism and disinformation, and drilling instead of clean energy.
Inequality feels inevitable — until you see corporations spending profits on stock buybacks rather than fair pay and safe workplaces.
Job precarity feels like personal failure — until you trace it back to investors rewarding layoffs and union-busting in the name of “efficiency.”
Rather than correct these systemic risks, corporate actors have in many instances incentivized themselves to worsen them. The disasters they create are now part of the business plan — doubling down on harm, capturing our futures, and converting our dominion into dividends.
We tend to respond to the visible symptoms of disaster capitalism because they are immediate and painful. But the root cause is a lack of participatory economic power. The disaster capitalism model only works because our participation has been denied. When communities are locked out of decisions about how capital is allocated or crises are managed, corporate actors rewrite the rules to serve their interests. The same forces profiting from disaster must erode democracy itself to keep the public from interfering.
Disaster capitalism is what happens when private power is left unchecked — and unless we confront it directly, with democratic accountability and public oversight, it will continue to shape our future in its own image.
The Hidden Risk
Hedging bets on disaster models doesn’t only threaten communities and democracy, it endangers business itself. Many CEOs assumed backing a “business-friendly” administration would guarantee favorable policies and contracting opportunities. But an administration that plays by cutthroat corporate rules, while skirting accountability, is a dangerous gamble. Markets thrive on stability. By chasing deregulation and short-term gain, corporations risk eroding the very foundations they depend on. Further, the U.S. government’s recent move to acquire a 10% stake in Intel should serve as a warning: if corporate leaders fall out of political favor, their firms may be subject to increased state control or strategic intervention.
This is why governance rooted solely in being “business-friendly” — rather than “people-friendly” — is a trap we all pay for. When private profits hinge on political favor, corporations cease to be independent actors and become instruments of whoever holds power. In the process, they put their own firms, our markets, democracy, and the public at risk.
The Hands on the Levers of Power:
Who makes up corporations and determines where capital flows? There are humans behind the decisions that shape our economic and societal trajectory:
Corporate Executives
A small number of corporate executives and directors hold immense power over the way we live and work. Too often, their choices — whether to pay poverty wages, cut corners on safety, pollute to lower costs, or lobby against protections — may benefit balance sheets in the short term but impose deep costs on society.
Institutional Investors and Asset Managers
Entrusted as fiduciaries, institutional investors — including major U.S. asset managers like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard — wield enormous influence over corporate decision-making. Because they manage trillions in retirement savings, public pensions, and endowments, these firms hold substantial ownership stakes across the stock market. That ownership translates directly into voting power, giving them a decisive voice in board elections, executive pay, climate disclosures, labor practices, and other key decisions. Yet too often, they use that power to rubber-stamp management decisions that erode rights, accelerate climate breakdown, and deepen inequality. And because their outsized role in shaping corporate behavior remains largely misunderstood by the public, they operate with little accountability.
Beyond large asset managers, other institutional investors who may be values-aligned — such as foundation or religious endowments — or who directly oversee public money, including workers’ capital — such as public pension funds or public university endowments– need guidance and support to ensure that their investment decisions are aligned with their stated commitment to the public good.
All of Us
But here’s the truth: it’s not only their money at play–it’s ours. Through retirement accounts, pensions, and institutional endowments, the majority of Americans are investors. Yet because we are rarely informed about how our savings are used, and are given few real ways to influence those decisions, our money is deployed to bankroll the very crises that harm us. And those of us who aren’t shareholders are still stakeholders — consumers, workers, and community members — whose daily lives are tied to the outcomes of corporate decision-making. Our lack of understanding, access and agency is part of the problem: it allows concentrated power to grow while leaving the majority disempowered and disenfranchised.
The Path Forward: Economic Democracy
The answer isn’t adapting to disasters engineered by the powerful. It’s restoring public power so we can stop reacting to their rigged economy — and start building systems rooted in representation and participation, not exploitation.
Economic democracy offers a direct response to the crisis of corporate capture. At its core, economic democracy extends the values of political democracy — participation, accountability, and fairness — into the economy itself. A reality where everyone has the right to participate in the economy, and where investment decisions, which shape our jobs, our climate, and our communities, are no longer shielded from accountability.
Just as democracy falters when votes are suppressed or voices silenced, the economy falters when investment decisions are captured by a few insiders, disconnected from the people their choices impact. By establishing and engaging pathways of participation in our economy we can ensure workers, communities, and future generations all have a real voice in how capital flows and whose interests it serves.
Imagine an economy where:
Workers don’t just power the economic system — they help steer it, with real influence in corporate and investment decisions.
Investors act as forceful stewards, holding themselves, corporations, and asset managers accountable for long-term value creation.
Retirement savings and pensions fuel clean energy, fair jobs, and local communities — not pollution, exploitation, and inequality.
Emerging technologies like AI are developed with public safeguards, propelling democracy, equity, and sustainable growth rather than destabilizing them.
Political freedom cannot survive without economic accountability. The solution is not resignation. It is learning to engage with the economy, not as separate from democracy — but as an extension of it. Capital strategies — tools like shareholder and corporate engagement, proxy voting, and asset reallocation — allow us to contest concentrated corporate power at its source and ensure the economy generates long-term value. When we organize to hold both corporate and political decision-makers accountable by participating in the systems that govern our lives we don’t just defend democracy — we expand it. We build the collective capacity to confront the intersecting crises of our time and secure our shared future.
Call to Action: Putting Our Money Where Our Future Is
A world wreaked by economic instability, a climate crisis, racial exploitation and other pressing human rights matters is not a foregone conclusion. A just and sustainable future is within reach — but only if we claim our role in shaping it.
What you can do:
For Business Leaders and Executives: Engage with all stakeholders, including your employees and the communities you serve. Form nonpartisan business associations that are explicitly and actively committed to protecting our democratic institutions
For Investors and Asset Owners: Be active and responsible stewards of the capital you manage. Hold asset managers accountable for aligning investment decisions with long-term value and collective well-being.
For Funders and Allies: Support capital strategies as a core part of our movement’s infrastructure: invest in organizations that are helping to build the tools, campaigns, and coalitions that turn grassroots demands into systemic change. Help resource the bridge between economic decision-makers and frontline communities so those most affected by corporate actions have a real say.
For Communities and Movement Partners: Understand how capital decisions touch the campaigns and issue areas you fight for. Organize for participatory power in both our economy and democracy, and help correct corporate disinformation that obscures the true impacts of capital on our daily lives.
For Everyone: Be an active participant. Each of us has a role in shaping our economy. Connect with us to ensure your voice — and your money — help build systems that serve the many, not the few.
By stepping into our role as stewards of both the economy and democracy, we unlock a future where the systems meant to serve us finally do.
Majority Action’s Role- Holding the Line and Pushing it Forward
Majority Action is here to end the financing of the crises that threaten our communities, and to help build a future where economic power serves the many, not just the powerful few.
We focus on the overlooked nuances most critical for systems change, offering practical pathways to build collective power through capital strategies. Majority Action operates at the intersections of capital markets, corporate accountability, and social movements because we believe capital strategies must be part of the movement for change. Through research, investor organizing, and campaigns that bring together diverse stakeholders, we’re building a financial system grounded in accountability and participation.
We work with:
Asset owners and pension fund trustees to demand stronger stewardship from the financial institutions managing their money.
Impacted grassroots communities and labor allies to connect frontline realities with financial power.
Movement partners and policymakers to align capital strategies with long-term public value.
To advance strategies that expand economic democracy: ensuring workers, communities, and investors have the knowledge, pathways, and relationships to interrupt the cycle of corporate capture, and to build the democratic counterpower needed to move beyond it.
We believe in a world where opportunity is shared, there is respect for human and planetary life, and “have nots” are a relic of the past. That future is within reach — but only if we act together.
Visit us at https://www.majorityaction.us/ to learn more and get involved!
