A corporate republic is a theoretical form of government occasionally hypothesized in works of science fiction, though some historical states such as medieval Florence might be said to have been governed as corporate republics. While retaining some resemblance of republican government, a corporate republic would be run primarily like a business, involving a board of directors and executives. Utilities, including hospitals, schools, the military, and the police force, would be privatized. The social welfare function carried out by the state is instead carried out by corporations in the form of benefits to employees. Although corporate republics do not exist officially in the modern world, they are often used in works of fiction or political commentary as a warning of the perceived dangers of unbridled capitalism. In such works, they usually arise when a single, vastly powerful corporation deposes a weak government, over time or in a coup d'état.
Contents
Some political scientists have also considered state socialist nations to be forms of corporate republics, with the state assuming full control of all economic and political life and establishing a monopoly on everything within national boundaries - effectively making the state itself equatable to a giant corporation.
Examples
The Imperial Trading Companies such as the various East India Companies should possibly be considered corporate states, being semi-sovereign with the power to wage war and establish colonies. Singapore has often been presented as a nation which exhibits many characteristics of a corporate republic today, especially with regard to its hybrid governmental model, status as an financial centre and as a prominent international port of call.