Corporate capitalism is a term used in social science and economics to describe a capitalist marketplace characterized by hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations which are legally required to pursue profit. All or most of the means of production are owned by the corporation.

In economics

Numerically most businesses in the U.S. are not corporations but unincorporated sole proprietorships. However this is not an indication of the proportion of the economy or labour market that falls within corporate or joint stock company control. (Statistics about Business Size from the U.S. Census Bureau ). In fact, around the developed world Corporations dominate the marketplace, comprising of fifty-percent or more of all businesses. Those businesses which are not corporations contain the same bureaucratic structure of corporations, but there is usually a sole or group of owners who are liable to bankruptcy and criminal charges relating to their business. Hence, corporations have limited liability and remain less regulated and accountable than sole proprietorships.

Corporations are usually called 'public' entities when parts of their business can be bought in the form of shares on the stockmarket. This is done as a way of raising capital to finance the investments of the corporation. The shareholders appoint the executives of the corporation who are the ones running the corporation via a usually hierarchical chain of power, where the bulk of investor decisions are made at the top, and have effects on those beneath them.

In social science

Corporations have been criticized by numerous social scientists for failing to act in the interests of the people, and their existence seems to circumvent the principles of democracy, which assumes equal power relations between individuals in a society . Thomas Jefferson was one of the founders of the US democratic system, lived long enough to say "I hope we shall crush ... in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country" Corporate capitalism became the norm in society after their colonization of ownership of the mass media, which is currently being threatened by the growth of the internet.

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