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| 4 | [[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/WallE https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buy_n_large_world_order.png]]]] |
| 5 | [-[[caption-width-right:300:"O Buy n Large! Our home and shopping mall!"[[note]]Sing to the tune of "O Canada!"[[/note]]]]-] |
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| 9 | |
| 10 | ->''"Actually, I'm Mayor in name only. The city and everything in it is really run by Shinra, Inc. My only real job is watching over Shinra's documents. Me! The Mayor! A librarian!"'' |
| 11 | -->-- '''Mayor of Midgar''', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' |
| 12 | |
| 13 | A MegaCorp is often a large, shadowy organization with a power base and structure that rivals even TheGovernment. When you take it one step further, with the Mega Corp actually ''being'' the government during their DayOfTheJackboot, you get One Nation Under Copyright, or a "corporate state." |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Essentially, a corporate state is a government run and organized like a business. At the top is typically a board of executives (more likely than not [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt]] in fiction, though perhaps with a few {{honest|CorporateExecutive}} ones placed here and there) which makes all the decisions; for the common people, the terms "citizen" and "customer" (or perhaps "employee" is more accurate) are more or less interchangeable. Some may actually have a form of quasi-democratic government, allowing all shareholders a certain number of votes proportional to the number of shares the voter owns (the common citizen is likely defined as someone who owns only a few shares in this case). It's not uncommon for corpocracies in fiction to wield military power too; conflicts between competing corporate states can eventually spill over into CorporateWarfare of truly epic proportions. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | One Nation Under Copyright may employ LawEnforcementInc, or even own them outright as a subsidiary. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | If taken to the extreme by the government owning ''everything'', this [[FridgeLogic raises the question]]: "[[NotSoDifferentRemark What's the difference between]] these and DirtyCommies?" Some might argue that this is the whole point. This idea—that "business runs government" and "government runs business" [[TheHorseshoeEffect are basically the same]]—is at the heart of many, ''many'' populist and/or agrarian movements since at least the 19th century, e.g. Creator/GKChesterton's "Distributism". |
| 20 | |
| 21 | For when a corporation or other body has all the power and sway of a country without the actual country, see NGOSuperpower. See CompanyTown for a smaller-scale version where a town is owned by a single company. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Subtrope of PrivatelyOwnedSociety. Very common in the CyberPunk genre. If the story is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, then it more likely than not takes place in either a DividedStatesOfAmerica or [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japan]]. Not to be confused with DisneyOwnsThisTrope, which is specifically about copyrights and trademarks (though the two may overlap). The BananaRepublic trope is named after the United Fruit Company's string of puppet nations in South America (see the Real Life folder below), and many fictional examples of that will be mundane (and extremely unpleasant) examples of this trope as well. |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !!Examples |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 30 | * The [[MegaCorp Solid Quake Corporation]] from ''Anime/DecaDence'' has more authority over its employees than most convential governments have over their citizens, including [[DisproportionateRetribution the ability to]] [[KilledOffForReal kill them]] if they fail to perform up to standards. They also own [[spoiler:the ''entire planet and everything on it'', including the oblivious remnants of humanity.]] |
| 31 | * ''Manga/GiantOjouSama'' seems to run on a system of corporate feudalism where zaibatsus own and perform all of the governmental functions for entire cities, if not nations. However, since this series is a light-hearted GiantWoman {{Fanservice}} manga, the usual downsides of such a system don't get highlighted. Indeed, it works out pretty well for them because while this means the titular protagonist Oriko Fujidou was given total control of a city as a birthday present when she was only four years old, much of the focus is on how she has both the ability and the dedication to make the happiness and safety of the citizens her top priority. The only real problem that seems to come up is the frequent attacks from giant alien [[{{Kaiju}} Invaders]]. |
| 32 | * ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': As an AfterTheEnd {{Cyberpunk}} {{Dystopia}}, the government in the setting is TheFederation of various {{Mega Corp}}s. There are officially five of them in charge of the Corporate Government at any given time, and it's said that which five those are shifts over time due to shifts in power. Kugamayama City is a CompanyTown for Sakashita Heavy Industries, who also manage the FictionalCurrency aurum. Kugamayama with its UrbanSegregation is designed for a DungeonBasedEconomy of reverse-engineering LostTechnology from NeglectfulPrecursors known as the Old World to whom monsters are actually ancient security systems. The government takes an extremely harsh view on debt (IndenturedServitude is common, and the default punishment for crossing them). They treat slum dwellers as CannonFodder and serve them food that's radioactive or MysteryMeat filled with harmful {{Nanomachines}} to test if they're safe to sell. They're also frequently engaging in one GovernmentConspiracy after another, including the frequent FalseFlagOperation of each MegaCorp attacking [[WeAreStrugglingTogether one another]]. |
| 33 | * ''Literature/ShangriLa'': The Atlas Corporation, post-worldwide carbon tax, has effectively usurped control of Japan from the government by monopolizing carbon. They run the nation through Atlas Tower while forcing the poor people to struggle in the jungles of the ruined Japan, and the Prime Minister is basically a puppet. Ryoko Naruse, the CEO, drops the charade about halfway through when she takes the position of Prime Minister from him with no election, while still keeping her ownership of the company, and the people are powerless to stop the blatant conflict-of-interest. |
| 34 | [[/folder]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 37 | * ''ComicBook/{{Lazarus}}'' takes place in a FeudalFuture where society as we know it has collapsed and the families that controlled {{Mega Corp}}s have become the new nobility of the Earth. The setting strongly embraces BlackAndGrayMorality, and the best that people living under the control of these families can hope for is benign neglect, and [[PragmaticVillainy possible comfort if you make yourself useful to the future of a family]], while the worst includes living in squalor as part of the brainwashed masses and being killed off by genetically engineered bioweapons or SuperSoldiers if one of these families decides that [[KillThePoor the population has grown too large to be supported]]. |
| 38 | [[/folder]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 41 | * In ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'', the fanmade Angela region based on southern California is more or less ruled by corporations. |
| 42 | * In ''Fanfic/EquestriaDivided'' one of the factions trying to take over Equestria is House Whitegold which is a combination of rich nobles, merchant guilds and PrivateMilitaryContractors. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 46 | * Buy 'n' Large from ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' is one of these. Dollar bills have the B&L logo on them, and the CEO broadcasts messages from the Oval Office. This is merely heavily implied in the movie; [[AllThereInTheManual the DVD extras confirm it]]. |
| 47 | [[/folder]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 50 | * The world in ''Film/OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank'' is run by these. |
| 51 | * In ''Franchise/RoboCop'', [[MegaCorp Omni Consumer Products's]] ultimate goal is to turn the movie's gritty and dystopic UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} into "Delta City", effectively a city-state version of this trope, complete with people exercising their representative citizenship rights via the purchase of OCP shares. |
| 52 | * The Trade Federation in ''Franchise/StarWars'' seems to be a cross between this and TheFederation (it even has a representative in the Galactic Senate-ExpandedUniverse material confirms they in fact "represent" many planetary systems that are dependent on them). It later joins the Confederacy of Independent Systems, an even larger federation of corporate states, the key members being the [=InterGalactic=] Banking Clan, the Techno Union, the Commerce Guild, and the Corporate Alliance. |
| 53 | * The world in ''Film/Tekken2010'' is divided into eight massive conglomerates. |
| 54 | * In the future world of ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'', fictitious brand "Brawndo" purchased the FDA and the FCC, and used their position to replace water with their product. If you look closely at the American flag, each of the stars is actually the logo of Carl’s Jr. Also, the red stripes are actually red text reading, “The following companies are proud sponsors of the United States of Uhmerica. Carl’s Jr., Costco, Cavalcade, Flaturin, Tarrlyton, Ronaise, Buttfuckers, Nastea, Bonerax, Brawndo, Acne Insurance.” Possibly, these companies own parts of the U.S. government in the same way that Brawndo owns the FDA and FCC. |
| 55 | * ''Film/SpaceTruckers'' begins with the CorruptCorporateExecutive Saggs in the middle of negotiations with the World Government to buy out the whole planet. In case the negotiations fall through, he has a backup plan in the form of killer robots to force the planet under his heel. At the end of the film, the protagonists find out that Saggs is now the President of the World after privatizing the government. [[spoiler:He's then HoistByHisOwnPetard, so we're not sure what happens to Earth after that]]. |
| 56 | * ''Film/{{Rollerball}}''. The world seems to be divided into city states each of which controls a major corporate area. Houston, the protagonist team's home town is, no big surprise in charge of Energy. |
| 57 | * In ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', Central Services functions both as (and like) a totalitarian government and a corporate monopoly. Due to its bureaucratic and grossly inefficient nature, some viewers don't get this aspect clearly, especially the MisaimedFandom amongst the American right-wing. |
| 58 | * The movie ''Hasta la lluvia'' (Even the Rain) revolves around a film crew who wanted to film a movie about UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus, but since they decided to make the movie in Spanish, they lost the backing of a major American studio, and with the loss of this revenue, they decide to go film most of their movie in UsefulNotes/{{Bolivia}} because it will be cheaper, with the Spanish landing on the beach sequence filmed in a beach somewhere else later on. Unfortunately for the film crew, they decide to make their movie during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochabamba_Water_War water war,]] a series of civil uprisings that protested the Bolivian government's decision to [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope sell the copyrights to all the country's water]] to a [[MegaCorp muti-national]]. The films' title alludes to the fact that people could not collect water from a river, stream, well, or [[TitleDrop even the rain]] because they would have been violating some copyright law. |
| 59 | * Deleted scenes and the novelization of ''Film/AlienResurrection'' says that the Weyland Yutani Mega Corp from the previous movies was bought out by Wal Mart. |
| 60 | * ''Film/TheGirlFromMonday'': The future US has come to be ruled by a huge corporation called Triple M, which structures everything for maximizing profit and punishes dissent harshly. |
| 61 | [[/folder]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 64 | * ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Jackson's Whole is a territorially interlocked group of conglomerates (the top rank of which are called Great Houses), most of which would range from semi-criminal to outright monstrous amongst the rest of the galaxy, each with different specialties. |
| 65 | * ''Literature/TheSpaceMerchants'': The transnational advertising corporation the protagonist works for got their start by incorporating the entire country of India. |
| 66 | * ''Literature/SnowCrash'' has the United States being split into thousands of micronations, each one run by a different franchise company. Everything, from roads, to jails, to the Mafia, is now run like [=McDonald's=]. Neighborhoods are called burbclaves, a portmanteau of "suburban enclave", and act as autonomous nations with their own laws and currency set by the owning company. An American might encounter dozens of "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong" neighborhoods scattered about his nearby area just like any other business chain. Of particular note is the Mafia, which now operates out in the open as a legitimate business, complete with marketing slogan ("You've got a friend in the family!") and friendly mascot (the reigning don, Uncle Enzo). |
| 67 | * In ''Literature/JenniferGovernment'', not only do corporate states run America, but every citizen takes the last name of their business. The heroine is a government agent; the villain, John Nike, works for Nike, and children take the last names of the corporation that owns their school. One editor writes: "The central point of the novel was that this was where we'd be eventually headed if deregulation continued the way it was going." |
| 68 | %%* ''The Year of the Comet'' by Creator/JohnChristopher.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample |
| 69 | * Creator/RobertAHeinlein: |
| 70 | ** In the novel ''Literature/PodkayneOfMars'', the Venus Corporation controlled the entire planet Venus (and ran it like Las Vegas InSpace). |
| 71 | ** In ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'', the Golden Rule space habitat is run by the Golden Rule Corporation, which is the law there. The General Manager of the station can pretty much do what he wants there, although he is restrained by being a VillainWithGoodPublicity and feels he can't just kill someone without a good excuse. Failure to pay your air tax will, however, result in being thrown out the airlock (rumor has it that you are made into ground "pork" instead, though). |
| 72 | ** In ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', the Shipstone MegaCorp has grown so powerful in a [[BalkanizeMe balkanized world]] that the heroine starts to think of them as the only effective government. |
| 73 | * In ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'', Blok functions like this on Quillan. They own ''everything'', even art. |
| 74 | * In ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'', M&M Enterprises is set up as a way for the mess officer, Milo Minderbinder, to bilk the US Government out of quite a lot of money. [[spoiler:He then goes on to make an absolute fortune monopolizing trade in the Mediterranean. Eventually, he has a private army and air force, and is paid quite a lot by the Germans to bomb a US air base. Milo was supposed to be tried as a criminal, but all charges were dropped as soon as the brass saw how much money there was in bombing their own men.]] But hey, at least everybody owns a share! The film sums it up quite well when Milo hears about the death of a brother officer [[spoiler:killed by Milo's raid]]. |
| 75 | -->'''Milo Minderbinder:''' [[spoiler:Nately]] died a wealthy man, Yossarian. He had over sixty shares in the syndicate.\ |
| 76 | '''Yossarian:''' What difference does that make? He's dead.\ |
| 77 | '''Milo Minderbinder:''' Then his family will get it.\ |
| 78 | '''Yossarian:''' He didn't have time to have a family.\ |
| 79 | '''Milo Minderbinder:''' Then his parents will get it.\ |
| 80 | '''Yossarian:''' They don't need it, they're rich.\ |
| 81 | '''Milo Minderbinder:''' Then they'll understand. |
| 82 | * In ''The Gap Series'' by Stephen Donaldson, the United Mining Companies control human space on two different levels. There are some habitats, such as [=ComMine=], that they own outright and control the votes of in the Governing Council. Plus, their corporate police force is the only organization capable of protecting power in space, which effectively gives the UMC CEO dictatorial powers over the central government. The entire arc is driven by his chief of police's {{plan}} to pull a HeelFaceTurn and get control over the police given back to the Governing Council. |
| 83 | * The Sullustan home world Sullust became this in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse after the Empire was formed. The [=SoroSuub=] Corporation employed half the planet and unofficially dominated the government (its CEO also serving as President), before TheEmpire gave it outright control. However, [[LaResistance the Sullustan resistance movement]] staged a coup to overthrow them, and Sullust became a founding member of [[TheFederation the New Republic]]. Even after this [=SoroSuub=] remains nearly on par with the state. |
| 84 | * Both Beowulf and [[BigBad Mesa]] in ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' are run along corporatist lines, which is hardly surprising, as Mesa was settled essentially by a group of rogue Beowulfers. Both are controlled by the board of directors, with votes arranged corresponding to professions, though Mesa muddles the water a bit, [[spoiler: being secretly run by the AncientConspiracy]]. Manticore initially was also envisioned in the same way, though it mutated into something [[TheEmpire else]] [[TheFederation entirely]]. It's also mentioned that such political arrangements aren't anything unusual in the galaxy. |
| 85 | * In the ''Literature/WildCards'' series there are brief mentions of a space-faring conglomerate known as "The Network" which is described at one point as "a form of capitalism more rapacious than anything you can imagine". From the mentions, it appears that this is how The Network operates. |
| 86 | * When the Empire of New Britain Isles is first encountered by the ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'', they quickly find out that [[TheEmperor Governor-Emperor Gerald McDonald]] has long been under the thumb of the [[SarcasmMode Honourable]] New Britain Company, with the company, essentially, running things. Not only is the company run by {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s but the company's CEO equivalent is actually [[spoiler:a secret follower of the Holy Dominion's ReligionOfEvil]]. This changes quickly after the company reveals its true colors, and the practice of "[[InsistentTerminology obligations]]" (the company's bread and butter) is abolished. |
| 87 | * The Syndicate Worlds in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series are run like a corporation. In fact, their command officers are actually called "executives". It gets to the absurdity that, when the "executive" of an obsolete "Syndic" space station is facing an entire [[TheAlliance Alliance]] fleet of modern (by necessity) warships, he calmly replies to the offer of surrender by citing a specific regulation that forbids surrender under any circumstances. All John Geary can do is gape at the man's stupidity and unwillingness to see the reality, showing that a good number of Syndic executives are typical bureaucrats. Their war with the Alliance is motivated by their desire to keep their own people in line, as the presence of a democratic nation is a threat to their dictatorial government. |
| 88 | ** Not all Syndic [=CEOs=] are bad. Some are honest and good people who care about the people under them. However, none of them are in charge of anything larger than single world. When Geary interrogates a CEO, the executive reveals that he has been ReassignedToAntarctica for daring to file a protest about his company being bought out by a rival (the rival CEO having better connections in the Executive Council). |
| 89 | ** Later volumes also make the point that the Alliance isn't a shining example of a healthy democracy itself after a century of all-out war. |
| 90 | * ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' is an example of a feudal society where noble titles are derived from ownership of shares in ''Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles'' (CHOAM, roughly translated as "The Corporation of Honest Profit Traders"), a MegaCorp that pretty much runs the Imperium's entire economy. |
| 91 | * It is implied that the Moon in ''[[Literature/AdventuresOfDunno Dunno on the Moon]]'' is one. We never encounter any state official higher than a police chief, instead the very wealthy decide everything on an assembly resembling a stockholders' meeting. Of course, the Moon is a thinly-veiled satire on Western capitalism. |
| 92 | * The Empire of the Star in the ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'', having evolved from mergers of private law providers in a previous PrivatelyOwnedSociety. Becoming a citizen of the Empire requires buying a share in the Empire, though its' charter also prevents a citizen-shareholder from owning more than one share to prevent it from becoming a plutocratic oligarchy. Also, not uncommon in the Associated Worlds at large - most interstellar colonies start out run by a colonial corporation, and many of them never get around to replacing it. |
| 93 | * In Nathan Lowell's [[http://solarclipper.com/ Golden Age of the Solar Clipper]] universe many planets, known as "company planets", are owned by corporations. They're run much like old company towns, with housing only available to employees and their dependents. Ishmael Wong in the ''Trader's Tales'' series was born on a company planet but when his mother (a professor at the company's university) died he was given three months to leave the planet or be deported, so he found a job on a merchant ship. |
| 94 | * ''Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures'': The Corporate Sector, where corporations own entire regions of space. In fact the government, the Corporate Sector Authority, is just an umbrella corporation owned by them jointly. They don't like competition from smaller business entities, perhaps unsurprisingly. |
| 95 | * The galaxy in ''Literature/SpinwardFringe'' seems to be mostly fall under this. Most of space, at least in the areas the plot focuses on, is dominated by massive interstellar corporations, the larger of which can govern hundreds of planets. Some more traditional governments are encountered as well, but there seems to be little difference in practice. |
| 96 | * ''Literature/AgentG'' by Creator/CTPhipps has this as a downplayed trope with the aftermath of the Eruption. The world's largest corporations are granted nation-state status so they can help rebuild the global economy with its facilities treated like embassies and its workers having dual citizenship. In practice, it's just to increase their power as well as protect them from liability. |
| 97 | * ''Literature/ThePerfectRun'': The Dynamis Corporation is the closest thing to a government left in post-war Europe. There is literally no mention of any other legal authority in New Rome, from a mayor to a president. Enrique Manada repeatedly insists that they are the only rule of law left, and compared to the literal criminal empire, they certainly look good. Still, multiple people point out that having one corporation rule everything is clearly not the best solution in the long term. |
| 98 | |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 102 | * ''{{Series/Continuum}}'' has The North American Union, an oligarchy of the most powerful {{Mega Corp}}s on the continent, which at some point along the line bailed out the governments of the United States and Canada, taking over management of them. |
| 103 | * ''Series/Fallout2024''; [[spoiler: It's revealed that Vault-Tec and their business partners around the world secretly instigated the Great War so they could rule over the new civilization that followed. In the series proper, they had a hand in destroying the New California Republic as it was growing too big and prosperous for their liking, and have their sights set on other outcroppings of civilization that have arisen in the Wasteland]]. |
| 104 | * The Blue Sun brand is omnipresent throughout ''{{Series/Firefly}}'', appearing on everything from coffee cans to neuroimagers; [[WordOfGod Word of Joss]] says that "practically half the government was Blue Sun." They're also hinted to have backed the government's [[BreakTheCutie mind-shattering experiments]] on River; she attacks the logos on their products in two different episodes, and the mysterious blue-gloved agents that pursue her may work for them. |
| 105 | * According to background materials and the official tie-in CD, the Brakiri in ''Series/BabylonFive'' are an example of this. |
| 106 | * The Ferengi in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' are a [[TheTheocracy theocratic]] oligarchy, and while individual Ferengi own their own businesses and a HighPriest named the Grand Nagus (himself appointed based on his supreme business acumen) acts as official leader of the Ferengi Alliance, their civilization is effectively run along the lines of a massive corporation. The Ferengi Commerce Authority holds immense power, can depose the Nagus if his decisions are not good for business, can strip individual Ferengi of their wealth and holdings if they act against the Rules of Acquisition (a combined list of [[TheAlmightyDollar better business practices and holy commandments]] which applies to every Ferengi and is still steadily being added to), and the richer a Ferengi is, the more influential they are in government. |
| 107 | * In the [[AllThereInTheManual online background material]] for ''Series/DoctorWho'', the [[AlternateUniverse Pete's World]] country of Czechoslovenia™ is apparently owned by Cybus Industries, whose [[http://cybusindustries.net/lumic.htm website]] makes a point of [[{{Tradesnark}} trademarking the name]]. |
| 108 | * ''Series/BetterOffTed'' mentions this. |
| 109 | -->'''Chet''': So with the board meeting this week, our former CEO, Arthur Wells, is in town.\ |
| 110 | '''Veronica''': Arthur Wells? That man is a legend. Wasn't he behind Veridian acquiring ownership of the African country of Chad, and then renaming it after his nephew Chad? |
| 111 | * In ''Series/{{Killjoys}}'' the star system known as The Quad is entirely owned by the Company, the MegaCorp that runs the system and is its government. Ownership of stock in the company is proportional to the amount of ancestral land one owns in Qresh, the central planet. |
| 112 | * In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', by the mid-22nd century, the nation-states of old will no longer hold power, their role having been taken by various corporations, the largest of which is the Kasnia Conglomerate, which uses Atom-derived AttackDrones as its police force. It's also mentioned that, at some point, S.T.A.R. Labs takes over the control of Central City, implying it becomes an economic power again, despite the whole "exploding particle accelerator" fiasco. |
| 113 | * The Consortium in the series ''Series/TotalRecall2070'' is a conglomerate of six multi-national incredibly powerful companies that basically rule over certain colonies (like Mars), and even the government finds hard to keep them in check. |
| 114 | * In the series ''[[Music/DougAnthonyAllStars Daas Kapital]]'', the Shitzu Tonka corporation runs the entire world. Their motto is "Another day of global peace where nothing much happens. No war, no inflation, no violence, no rainforest. That's a Shitsu Tonka day." |
| 115 | * ''Series/{{Incorporated}}'': By the 2060s, climate change and economic collapse have caused most governments ([[FallenStatesOfAmerica including the US]]) to all but collapse, leaving vast areas of their territory controlled by MegaCorp {{NGO Superpower}}s, who act as nations unto themselves. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 119 | * The ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' setting for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has the Dragonmarked Houses, which are explicitly by treaty ''not'' nations, though in effect they amount to a separate set of nations that's not based on territory but on some field of commerce on which each of them holds a virtual monopoly. The treaty forbids house members from holding (traditional) titles of nobility or even ''owning land'', though several of the houses do so in all but name, and high-ranking house members are essentially ''treated'' as nobility. In essence, fantasy {{Mega Corp}}s. |
| 120 | * In Classic ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' a number of planets were controlled by corporations. Because of the way ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' stats were set up, the corporate planets were most likely to be small, low-population planets, more of a company town or trading post than a full-fledged corporate republic. |
| 121 | ** The founder of the Third Imperium was originally CEO of a mercantile corporation, though he was later named Grand Duke of the Sylean Federation, and he used the company's economic might to expand it into the Imperium. |
| 122 | * Naruni Enterprises in ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', who are considered a major political power in the Three Galaxies setting. They have been known to equip entire planets with military gear... then repossess them if they don't pay up on time. |
| 123 | ** Rifts features several of these, where a corporation is the replacement for a local government. |
| 124 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' these are incredibly common, as [[NGOSuperpower AA- and AAA-rated Megacorps]] can often become so vital to a small nation's economy that they practically take over the whole thing. Even if nominally controlled by a government, these nations have a majority of their GDP provided by a single corporate entity and thus tend to be all but {{Puppet State}}s to these corporations. |
| 125 | ** The Pueblo Corporate Council was ''founded'' as OneNationUnderCopyright. All PCC citizens are awarded one share of non-transferable stock as a birthright, and voting rights are allocated logarithmically, based on how much stock a person holds (two votes for ten shares, three for 100, etc). |
| 126 | ** Aztlan, what used to be Central America and [[MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack parts of]] [[DividedStatesOfAmerica the former U.S.]], is essentially a subsidiary of the MegaCorp Aztechnology. While Aztlan is technically its own nation, Aztechnology's rights and duties are written into Aztlan's constitution. |
| 127 | ** The Chinese Canton Confederation and the free city of Hong Kong are both run by Wuxing, inc in a collaboration with [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs the Red Dragon syndicate]] and [[CorporateDragon their dragon benefactor]]. |
| 128 | ** The Free City of Berlin, following a few decades as [[UsefulNotes/{{Anarchism}} an anarchist commune]], was eventually taken over by Saeder-Krupp after a series of hostile takeovers using private armies to eject the anarchists. |
| 129 | * Most of the Terra Novan population centers in ''TabletopGame/HeavyGear'' have conventional governments, but the Paxton Protectorate are an unusual Good Guy version. They lay claim on and defend a majority of Terra Nova's physical territory, the Badlands, although there's not much in the way of people or resources there. The government of the Protectorate is really just the board of the military-industrial Paxton Arms corporation, and they're ''still'' a more egalitarian bunch than the polar confederacies. |
| 130 | * In ''TabletopGame/FadingSuns'' the Guilds, while they're not quite encyclopedical example of MegaCorp, rule over several planets and own pieces of land on most of the rest. |
| 131 | ** The game's background mention precise examples in the game-universe's history. The Earth-based First Republic was really a governmental figure-head, with a number of {{MegaCorp}}s holding the only real power. After the fall of the First Republic, both era known as The Diaspora and to a lesser extent during the Second Republic, some planets were openly owned and operated by corporate entities. |
| 132 | * ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' |
| 133 | ** The ''Terradyne'' setting is named after the first off-planet MegaCorp, founded to slip through a loophole in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty Outer Space Treaty]], particularly Articles II and IV: no nation can claim extraterrestrial territory, no national military can operate in space. Good part; a corporation can hold territory and defend it from theft and/or destruction. Bad part; space colonists have no political rights, as they are effectively expatriate citizens - and subject to [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem completely arbitrary]] taxes and tariffs. Result: SpaceColdWar - the capitalist Terradyne colonists engaged in economic shenanigans and covert intrigue with an increasingly socialist [[UnitedNationsIsASuperpower United Peoples]] of [[OneWorldOrder Earth]]. |
| 134 | ** The "Stopwatch" BadFuture in ''GURPS Time Travel'' ... maybe. Government and industry are so interwound in its OneWorldOrder that it's no longer clear whether it's a communist state that nationalised everything or a free-market state where the {{Mega Corp}}s took over. Basically it's ''whatever you don't want it to be'', and may even change from one to the other as a result of actions in the past. (It's established that ''all'' timelines lead inevitably to the "Stopwatch" future or the good guys' "[[TimePolice Timepiece]]" future.) |
| 135 | * The ''{{TabletopGame/Corporation}}'' RPG features a world run by five mega-corporations. |
| 136 | * ''TabletopGame/BluePlanet'' has the Incorporate, corporations who bought "failed states" after a global famine with the consent of the UN to restore governance in those areas. They are run like corporations, but have their own armies, issue their own money and sit on the GEO (UN replacement) council just like nations. |
| 137 | * Much of the inner solar system in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' is governed by the Planetary Consortium, which is a confederation of the major inner-system corporations. Most of the major city-states and habitats have officially democratic governments, but they're really just puppets of the Consortium. |
| 138 | * In the ''{{TabletopGame/Alternity}}'' Star*Drive setting, the Stellar Nations Austrin-Ontis Unlimited, Rigonmur Star Consortium, Starmech Collective and Voidcorp are this, and Insight might be as well (it isn't outright stated, but they did begin as a division of Voidcorp [then again, they also ''hate'' Voidcorp...]). They vary in corporateness from Voidcorp, whose pursuit of profit leads them into things that are not just unethical and against the Galactic Concord, but also questionably profitable in a long-term perspective, like [[spoiler: selling out humanity to the Externals]], to Austrin-Ontis Unlimited, who is, for all intents and purposes, a bog-standard republic that just happens to call its citizens 'shareholders' and its president 'CEO'. |
| 139 | * In the ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'' D&D setting, the Minrothad Guilds are essentially a MegaCorp, with each individual island constituting a different "division" of the company and the service-guilds operating as corporatized government bureaus. |
| 140 | * The Guild in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' is an aspiring one and in many respects a successful one. While they may not have complete legitimacy, in effect everyone may as well admit they rule the Scavenger Lands. |
| 141 | * The backstory to ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' includes a war between the traditional nation-states and "Corptowns", privately built and owned cities that attracted residents by having fewer laws and better economies than nations. The war went poorly for the governments, until they decided to just nuke every Corptown on Earth and managed to set off one nuke on entirely-corporate Mars, in response someone unleashed a virus that infected Earth's nuclear silos and targeted every square inch of Earth's surface, not stopping the launches for six years. Now, the descendants of humanity on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter's moons all live in Corptowns owned by one of seven {{Mega Corp}}s, even a few Corpnations. |
| 142 | * The Trade Federation in ''TabletopGame/StarRealms'', which rules Earth and its nearby colonies. The organization itself was a development resulting from corporations supplanting traditional government institutions. In game, the Federation focuses on gaining Trade points and increasing Authority, and less on Combat like the other factions. |
| 143 | * ''TabletopGame/MutantChronicles'' has MegaCorp's being the dominant force in solar system, and have replace nations as forms of governance. Each of mega corp controls entire planets save the Luna Earths moon, which maintains independence from them. Mishima controls Mercury, Bauhaus controls Venus, Capitol controls Mars, and Imperial controls the asteroid belt. |
| 144 | * In ''Nova Praxis'' the Coalition is run by six Mega Corps know as the "Houses", with every citizen owing allegiance to one House. |
| 145 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Valence}}'', three of the major powers of the galaxy (including the largest, Genetechnologies) are megacorporations, controlling massive numbers of worlds for the profit of the shareholders. |
| 146 | * Happened briefly in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' between 3057 and 3081 the Word of Blake, which was a quasi-religious organization that maintained part of the Hyperpulse Generator network used for FTL communication. They drove Comstar, the organization they'd split from, off Terra, then began setting up the Word of Blake Protectorate, a region of space where they controled (directly or indirectly) all the planets. It only ended when they were destroyed at the end of the Word of Blake Jihad, a period of 14 years when they essentially declared war on everyone else. |
| 147 | ** Happened even earlier than that. Although rare in the grand scheme of things, some planets were completely owned and operated by corporate entities. The most major examples of this are Irian and Hesperus II, both of which were legally owned and locally governed by the corporations that were headquartered on each [[note]]Irian Technologies on [[CaptainObvious Irian]] and Defiance Industries on Hesperus II[[/note]]. In Irian's case, the company was granted direct representation in the Free Worlds League's Parliament because of their governing of the planet, while the CEO of Defiance was the ''de jure'' and ''de facto'' noble ruler of Hesperus II. It also helps that the only worthwhile thing ''on'' Hesperus II is the Defiance factory complex and the population of the world has never topped 500,000, and all that miniscule population are employees of Defiance. |
| 148 | ** Also, this was the apparent ''de facto'' state of Terra since [=ComStar=] took it over in the 2700s, as the world was governed by the quasi-cult/telecommunications MegaCorp. |
| 149 | * ''{{TabletopGame/Cyberpunk}}'': The NUSA. Maybe. It's complicated. The [[FallenStatesOfAmerica rump USA that only really controlled the eastern seaboard]] attempted to nationalize [[MegaCorp Militech]] in the aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War, when the corporation was still weak. However, the corporation turned out to be TooSpicyForYogSothoth, and managed to insert a large number of people whose primary loyalty was to the corporation in key positions in the US federal government and civil service. The New United States of America is on the rise, but no-one on the outside is quite sure whether it's the elected officials or the Militech Board of Directors calling the shots, or if such a distinction can be meaningfully made in the first place. The fact two high level executives of Militech are named president of the NUSA by 2077, the nationalization happening under the former and with the latter retiring from Militech to replace her after 50 years in office, there's probably no need to. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 153 | * ''VideoGame/AceCombat'': |
| 154 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' features the start of this in motion, with country-sized corporations General Resources Ltd. and Neucom engaging in a global case of CorporateWarfare. |
| 155 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombatAdvance'', which takes place seven years prior, has practically the entire world of Strangereal become this. Your role is to fight it off as a pilot for one of the few countries that still exist. While you ultimately don't succeed, you are able to wipe General Resources' attack dog army out and prevent them from being the sole corporation in ''Electrosphere''. |
| 156 | * [=GiganTech=] in ''VideoGame/ArmedPoliceBatrider'' effectively has [[WretchedHive Zenovia Island]] as its own city-state. And testing ground [[ArmsDealer for black market weapons]]. [[FromBadToWorse And power supply]] [[HumanResources for the really energy-hungry weapons]]. |
| 157 | * ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'': With the possible exception of ''[[VideoGame/ArmoredCore2 AC 2]]'' and its successor, ''[[VideoGame/ArmoredCore2AnotherAge Another Age]]'', the world is dominated not by one, but multiple corporate states. |
| 158 | * ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'': The Sumeragi Group is often said to be the ''de facto'' government of the country the game is set in, as it controls not only economy but also entertainment, logistics and security, particularly regarding [[PsychicChildren Adepts]]. |
| 159 | * ''VideoGame/BioShock'': This is what Rapture ended up becoming. Turns out the man who built it, a staunch anarcho-capitalist who claimed to love personal liberty and free enterprise and thought of the poor and less fortunate as "parasites", was actually very quick to toss his ideals aside when someone started to out-compete ''his'' business; his solution, of course, was to [[SecretPolice forcibly]] seize all the businesses that got too profitable for their own good. Thanks, Andrew Ryan, [[{{Hypocrite}} you cheap bastard]]. |
| 160 | * ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has the Hyperion corporation taking over Pandora, in the aftermath of the Atlas corporation's collapse. ''[[VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel The Pre-Sequel]]'' mentions in a presentation that the founders of Hyperion managed to destroy the central government of humanity, which led to the other corporations to rise and become galactic empires in their own right. |
| 161 | * ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'': |
| 162 | ** The ''Civilization V'' expansion ''Brave New World'' added Venice as a playable civilisation. They are unique in being unable to build or capture settlers and so can't expand normally, but are able to buy city states instead. |
| 163 | ** ''VideoGame/CivilizationCallToPower'' has a futuristic form of government called "Corporate Republic". In-game history noted that the gradual collapse of modern governments forced corporations to step in and maintain vital infrastructure and services or risk major losses. |
| 164 | ** ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', the SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' below, features an {{Expy}} of Morgan Industries called the American Reclamation Corporation. |
| 165 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'', the [[BigBad WEC]] arose from the merger of the economic bodies that themselves took over the running of the various continents from more conventional governments when they toppled or became too weak. interestingly, the [=WEC=] actually claims to ''not'' be a government, merely a steward for the powers of government, even as it goes about cheerfully tightening its grip on the ways, the means, the sources, and the consumers of production. |
| 166 | * The ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' expansion ''The Republic'' allows you to play as a merchant republic, which are modelled on the real-life Hanseatic League and other merchant states such as Venice. |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/DyztopiaPostHumanRPG'': Zetacorp is a MegaCorp, but it's basically indistinguishable from being the main body of government of Zeta, since Zazz is the president of both the state and the corporation. Any attempt to defy Zetacorp is considered treason against the state itself, and even attempting to retire too early from Zetacorp is punishable by death in Zazz's mind. |
| 168 | * ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'' features some planets that are corporate states. The sequel, ''Frontier'', also has these; they vary from reasonably civilized places to pirate-infested systems which are happy to trade slaves and battlefield weapons to anyone visiting. |
| 169 | * The Caldari State, one of four playable races in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', is a conglomeration of Mega Corporations. They outright call themselves a corporate state, and the company rivalries are so deep-seated the only thing that really bands them together is the fight to reclaim their homeland. Since the death of [[OnlySaneMan Otro Gariushi]] and the recapture of Caldari Prime, the glue holding the State together has increasingly become [[PuttingOnTheReich Tibus Heth and his underlings]]. |
| 170 | * The eponymous city in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' is run by (seemingly immortal) pre-nuclear apocalypse business executive and HowardHughesHomage Mr. House, who describes himself as the territory's "president, CEO, and sole proprietor". House's primary goal is to bring the entire region under his control as an autocratic [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism state capitalist]] society, but as concerning as that might sound to some, he's actually ALighterShadeOfGrey compared to the alternatives. |
| 171 | * The Shinra company from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. Ostensibly, there is a mayor to the city of Midgar, but his offices are in the company building, and he does not have any real power. His only real job is managing all of Shinra's archived files. |
| 172 | * ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'': The Korx would sell you their own mothers if they hadn't already sold them to someone else. They are replaced in the third game by the Iridium Corporation, who, while a species-wide business, are much more moral. |
| 173 | * In ''VideoGame/GroundControl'', all humans worlds are, technically, under corporate control (though Earth is a bit of a special case as it's not run by ''one'' corporation, but instead separated into territories run by the various corporations who handle Earth-wide issues through a common council). This also applies to the worlds run by the Order of the New Dawn, since they are officially registered as a MegaCorp (for political reasons). The Crayven Corporation is one of the biggest ones out there and owns many colonies in both the Inner and Outer Spheres. By the time of the sequel, all the old {{Mega Corp}}s are gone, but the Intergalactic Trade Guild is stated to be a corporate alliance of several Outer Sphere worlds who remain neutral during the war between the [[TheEmpire Terran Empire]] and the [[TheAlliance Northern Star Alliance]]. |
| 174 | * ''VideoGame/JustCause4'': Solís is ''technically'' a free-market economy, but the only companies that are not tied up in enough red tape and arbitrary taxation to make operating in the country unfeasible ''just happen'' to be the ones owned and operated by the dictator Oscar Espinosa, who also happens to have dissolved the Armed Forces and Police and replaced them with a PMC called the Black Hand... that he also owns. |
| 175 | * The [[EvilInc Czerka Corporation]] from ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', while functioning like a normal mega-corporation in Republic Space, actually has complete control over at least two known planets, Tatooine and Kashyyyk, in the first game. One of the loading screens says they and other mega-corps police themselves, being too large for the Republic to control. Czerka seems to still be in the Republic's good graces in the second one despite openly dealing arms to both sides. |
| 176 | * In the universe of ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourneySaga'', the world of Stark is run by the Syndicate, a conglomeration of [[MegaCorp megacorporations]], complete with its own military/police force called the EYE. |
| 177 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 178 | ** The whole planet of Noveria is a conglomerate of corporations. The planet is exempt from all but the [[TheFederation the Citadel]]'s most anti-catastrophic laws. Corruption is rampant and generally ignored as long as it doesn't impede regular business. |
| 179 | ** Also arguably the volus species, which are like [[Franchise/StarTrek the Ferengi]] but with morals. Interestingly, the volus find the idea of parents "owning" their children to be absurd, which is why they associate by clan rather than family. |
| 180 | ** A variant in the turians, who are instead of a nation corporation are a nation military, to the point the advancement in military rank is an advancement as a citizen as well (though non-military jobs are not lesser or looked down upon). |
| 181 | * ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdgeCatalyst'': The nation of Cascadia is ruled by an executive board of business owners known as the Conglomerate, made up of thirteen ruling families. Those thirteen businesses run absolutely everything. The populace is placated by the promise that if they work really hard, they can be promoted to better positions, or even (in extraordinary cases) get adopted into one of the families. While this does happen, it's only to an extremely lucky few, and common citizens have essentially no personal freedoms, privacy, or rights. |
| 182 | * ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'': |
| 183 | ** The Corporate Republic of Bluebird has tensions with Mindlesia since their failed purchase of the latter in 2030 and 2044. Their products, which are mostly robotic parts for Chippies[[note]]people with microchips called [[PunnyName Potato Chips]] installed in them to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy control them]][[/note]] made in those years hurt your store's reputation if kept for more than two days. |
| 184 | ** [[spoiler:The Mindlesian watch company SAS becomes one in Ending 11, five years after building a bunker to shelter Fixies, most of whom were their former employees who were injected with [[EmotionSuppression Fixer.]] The bunker's success prompted CEO Asib Son to separate SAS from Mindlesia as part of its transition into a corporate republic.]] |
| 185 | * ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'': In the Halcyon system, the setting’s [[MegaCorp Mega-Corps]] have effectively become governments, to the point that discrimination is based on things like which corporation you were born into. WordOfGod describes it as a world where the robber barons of the late 19th/early 20th century never died out and now ''every'' town is a CompanyTown. |
| 186 | * ''VideoGame/PandoraFirstContact'' has the Noxium Corporation, which has a monopoly on [[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]] in the Solar System and brings that attitude to Pandora. |
| 187 | * Morgan Industries in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' is supposed to be more or less one of these, but [[GameplayAndStorySegregation you can't directly make that choice in Social Engineering]]. The reason for that is likely that if you could, Morgan Industries could be a [[FridgeLogic non-corporate state]]. As it stands, the available choices [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation can be seen]] as representing different ''variations'' of One Nation Under Copyright (Police State: ''Politburo of Directors'', Democracy: ''One Man, One Share (of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_stock common stock]])'', Fundamentalist: ''God, Incorporated'', Green: ''A green economy is a sustainable economy'', Power: ''Power is the shortest path to wealth'', Knowledge: ''Innovation drives capitalism''). |
| 188 | * ''VideoGame/SimCity'' gives the player this option with [=OmegaCo=] in Cities of Tomorrow. The goal is to create and sell as much [[{{Unobtanium}} omega]] as possible to various factories and commercial businesses, and eventually have residents buy robots and subscribe for the omega deliveries. However, it just doesn't stop there, as you also get to buyout [[StarScraper Megatowers]] and entire cities in hopes to improve the bottom line. This means that a player can literally take over a whole chunk of the region under [=OmegaCo=]. Even the less futuristic specializations (such as drilling for oil and running casinos) work around with idea that the corporations are a part of city government, meaning the player isn't just a mayor of the city, but also CEO of their very own corporations. |
| 189 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'''s space stage, depending on how you ended the other stages, you can achive the "trader" philosphy which changes your planet to [[ProudMerchantRace revolve around captalistic trade]]. You can encounter other planets with the trader philosphy as well. |
| 190 | * The little-mentioned Kel-Morian Combine in ''Franchise/StarCraft'' is controlled by a bunch of mining guilds. The Combine worlds were annexed by the Confederacy (except for Moria itself, who joined up with the Dominion upon its formation) some years before the first game, but broke away from the Dominion following the Brood War. Rory Swann, the ''Hyperion'''s engineer, is from a former Combine world; he lost his arm in a rebellion against them. The novel ''Heaven's Devils'' takes place during the war between the Combine and the Confederacy from the viewpoints of Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay. Both sides are shown to be just as corrupt, and the war shows the first uses of "resocialized" criminals as {{Space Marine}}s. |
| 191 | * ''VideoGame/StarControl II'''s Druuge of the Persei system take this trope to a ridiculous extent: The Crimson Corporation is not only a government substitute, but owns all the natural resources and inhabitants as well. Druuge who quit (or are fired from) the corporation are instantly found guilty of stealing "company property" (air) and are sentenced to death. Druuge who are no longer useful, cannot work, or are in debt are tossed into the reactors of the nearest power station to be used as fuel. Retirees can breathe at a reduced rate. Oh, and their religion basically amounts to a ''contract'' with their god, where they promise worship and conversion in exchange for a relatively static and good way of life and "at least one miracle". |
| 192 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', a possible government Civic for oligarchies is "Corporate Dominion", with the description stating that your empire is a MegaCorp that has supplanted the traditional state. A DLC added actual Corporate star empires, which have their own set of civics. |
| 193 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'', the Alterra Corporation that you work for is an interstellar "trans-gov", a transport corporation that bought out the functions of government a long time ago, and treats its citizens as employees, compensated and promoted by merit but ultimately owing everything they use back to the corporation... including, apparently, all the natural resources on 4546B that you harvest for your own survival, which you will be billed for upon your return to civilization (PDA: "Your current total stands at 3,000,000 credits")[[note]]If you survive, you become the first employee ever to rack up a debt of ''one trillion''[[/note]]. Several PDA's also indicate that even personal relationships are treated as business contracts, with affection and time spent together being treated as commodities to be negotiated and traded. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/SystemShock'': The [=TriOptimum=] Corporation was ''de facto'' in charge of human civilization, until things went [[GoneHorriblyWrong horribly wrong]] in the first game, leading to a revolution, the reinstatement of a representative government, and Tri-Op coming within a hairsbreadth of bankruptcy. The company managed to barely hang on by inventing FasterThanLightTravel. |
| 195 | * In ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'', the [=GalSpan=] sector of space is wholly owned by the [[MegaCorp Galactic Spanning Corporation]]. The other corporations are not shown to be as expansive, although they may or may not own some colonies in other sectors. While the Bora are typically portrayed as LaResistance to [=GalSpan=]'s encroachment, their official name is the Bora Mining Guilds, implying a corporate state. |
| 196 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': Reliable Excavation and Demolitions controls one half of the world. Builders League United controls the other half. The woman officiating the [[ForeverWar never-ending war between the two companies]] ''[[NGOSuperpower is the CEO]] of [[OneWorldOrder both of them]]''... or at least, that was the original premise. They've abandoned this in favor of RED and BLU being effectively worthless ventures founded by a pair of dimwitted, feuding brothers using their wealthy father's land and money. [[Webcomic/TeamFortress2 The comic "Blood Brothers"]] cemented the companies/brothers' status as money sinks. However, this same update also introduced the co-op map Coaltown, which bears the markings of a company town (see Real Life below). A sign above a store states that it accepts "coal tokens only". The Administrator still controls the world through TF Industries, RED, BLU, and Mann Co., but RED and BLU's role has been moved away from. It may have something to do with Zepheniah Mann's will, but the will itself does not specify how the Administrator runs RED and BLU. The Mann Vs. Machine update (and subsequent update) finally gives us a clear picture of why the Administrator would ever want to rule the world by turning the world's worst two companies (and dumbest [=CEOs=]) into secret rulers of the planet: Australium either enhances the user's intelligence to supernatural levels, or when refined can provide immortality instead (as seen in Redmond, Blutarch, The Administrator, and Grayson). Zepheniah Mann's inheritance of companies included a [[SoundEffectBleep f***-ton]] of Australium (or at least, the means to store the largest quantities of it safely and securely). DO THE MATH. Also, Grayson is more egotistic but also much smarter than his two idiot brothers (but still an idiot) so he cuts out the middlemen and makes Mann Co. itself the NGO Superpower. |
| 197 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The Corpus are a loose alliance of merchant clans and corporations united only by the pursuit of the almighty credit. They are the last legitimate government in the Origin System (the only other options are the fascist Grineer Empire and a number of primitive, unaligned tribes), but they spend more time cheating each other than actually getting things done. |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/WatchDogsLegion'' has this as its central premise. Albion and its allies in Blume and Carcani Medical have managed to suspend Parliament as well as institute a brutal police state. Their goals are also to milk the populace of as much money as possible. |
| 199 | * The Vector corporation in the ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' series fits this trope to a T. Almost to the degree of being ridiculous, given certain revelations in the third game [[spoiler: such as the fact that Vector's CEO is the head of a religious organization hell-bent on Vector's destruction too]]. |
| 200 | * ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': |
| 201 | ** The Teladi are a race of [[LizardFolk anthropomorphic lizard-people]] with [[ProudMerchantRace an almost religious devotion toward profit]]. Their government is called the "Teladi Space Company" and their ruler's official position is [=CEO=]. Their current [=CEO=] is Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV, or just "Nopileos" and "Nopy" for short, who inherited it the Space Company from her grandmother, Isemados. |
| 202 | ** In the backstory to ''VideoGame/XRebirth'' the Plutarch Mining Corporation's office in the Albion System staged a [[TheCoup coup d'etat]] after the [[PortalNetwork jumpgate network]] shut down, ousting the now-isolated Argon Federation government and military and setting themselves up as the government. |
| 203 | [[/folder]] |
| 204 | |
| 205 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 206 | * In the webcomic ''[[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/ God(tm)]]'', the intellectual property of God and all related characters is owned by a [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/01/GOD01_12.htm corporation]]. Later on, a marketing campaign is created to [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/01/GOD01_23a.htm rebrand religion]] into something hip and cool. |
| 207 | * The Maytec Consortium of ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' owns the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Californian government]] and claimed the entire planet Mars for mining (up until the anarchists showed up). |
| 208 | * ''Webcomic/TheKennyChronicles'': In ''Ferrets vs. Lemmings'', the ferret government of Dook Island was founded as effectively a company town for Guy King's meat exports business. |
| 209 | * ''[[http://www.freemarscomic.com/ Free Mars]]'': Mars is run by the totalitarian Combined Systems Corporations. The Martian Liberation Front is trying to change that. |
| 210 | * ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'' has the late, unlamented RIAA... which became so abusive in securing its alleged intellectual property that an alliance of solar systems ''declared war'' on it. |
| 211 | * In ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'', most nation-states have collapsed and "Mercorps" run most of society, even [[PlanetTerra old Terra]] is split between two Mercorps (based in China and Brazil). Pretty much the only government still active is the Lunar Republic, and even that is beholden to Omega-Tek. |
| 212 | * ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The Sharteshane King is just a figurehead bought and paid for by Jab Beadman of Beadman Industries who is the real power behind the throne and finagles its military to get rare materials and try to prevent wars that will reduce his clientele while supporting those whose fights have a chance of expanding the area where he can sell. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 216 | * ''WebOriginal/BosunsJournal'': During the Corpocaste era, the ship's society is dominated by a complex patchwork of megacorporations, rising, falling, merging, splitting, and responsible for managing every part of the new civilization, and with no particular distinction between "citizens" and "employees". |
| 217 | %%* ''Northern Corporate Dominion'': This is essentially the premise, although from the point of view of the slaves. |
| 218 | * ''Literature/PayMeBug'': The [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] has the Free Trade [[RoyalMess Baronies]] starting life as this. That was so long ago that they've since evolved into essentially standard governments, but there are still a few throwbacks to their history. |
| 219 | * ''Letsplay/LetsRambleWithRae'': Oligopolmart's MO is to buy entire planets. |
| 220 | * ''Literature/AnExaminationOfExtraUniversalSystemsOfGovernment'': |
| 221 | ** Guatemala Incorporated is the result of United Fruit taking direct control of the country and absorbing all its government's assets into itself. Though that said, it left private property alone, and there's a limited democracy in place (all citizens are shareholders from birth, can buy and sell more shares, and have a vote-per-share in choosing the Board of Directors, who in turn elect appoint other leadership positions). |
| 222 | ** The Federation of Sovereign Voluntarists, on the other hand, is a dictatorial state in all but name. |
| 223 | ** The remnants of the Republic of South Africa, which makes up of the South African Defense Force, becomes PrivateMilitaryContractors and earned the moniker "South Africa Incorporated." |
| 224 | ** The French Outremer Company spearheaded its universe's French colonial empire, which has territory in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. After the French monarchy is overthrown, they flee to the Company's headquarters in the equivalent of Cape Town, where the kings became hereditary heads of the Company as well, effectively merging the colonial and corporate entities into one, which has lasted to the present. |
| 225 | * ''WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged'' ends with America becoming one of these, on the grounds that since the Supreme Court ruled that corporations were people, it was decided at some point that they could run for president. Apparently, President Walt-Disney-Pepsi-Comcast has done wonders for the economy, given that it ''IS'' the economy. |
| 226 | * Yiffpunk takes place after the apocalypse, where corporations rule every country fully unchecked and have total control over ''all'' presidential candidates. |
| 227 | [[/folder]] |
| 228 | |
| 229 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 230 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mad}}'''s ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' parody, where instead of [[GalacticConquerer ruling the galaxy]] [[TheEmperor Darth Sidious]]' EvilPlan was to "own it" and make a fortune off ''Franchise/StarWars'' merch, saying "[[PragmaticVillainy the real money's in marketing]]". This was a few years before the Creator/{{Disney}} takeover, making it HilariousInHindsight. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 234 | * The word "corporation" comes from the Latin word "Corpus", which meant "a body of people". Corpi recognized by the Roman government included trade guilds, universities, religious cults, and the Roman government itself. Later on a number of governments were incorporated, such as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Corporation City of London Corporation]], which has been operating since at least 1067 and is still the city's municipal government. To form a new town, city, etc. is still called "incorporating". Corporate personhood is also based on this-a business becoming a "body" (person) in its own right. While this is mostly discussed regarding businesses, it also applies to governments, which is why for instance you can have legal cases with names like ''The United States versus John Doe'', because the government is recognized as being able to operate as an entity itself (through its agents, obviously). Naturally, this also applies to businesses suing each other, or governments, and businesses suing governments/governments suing businesses. However, the term "corporation" is now used mostly to mean "business corporation", and this older usage can confuse people, though that lives on when saying a town has "incorporated" for instance. It's also not what the trope refers to. |
| 235 | * The Honourable East India Company ran the British Empire's interests in India until the Great Mutiny of 1857 and thus, by a combination of bribery, alliances and superior competence - oh, and a private army larger than that of ''the Empire itself'' - controlled a substantial part of the subcontinent. It got away with so much as every British member of Parliament owned shares. |
| 236 | ** The British East India Company exists today, and ironically for having ruled India so long, was recently ''bought by an Indian billionaire''. |
| 237 | ** And their northern counterpart, the Hudson Bay Company, which ran much of what is now Canada and the USA.[[note]]And is now a chain of mid-range department stores.[[/note]] |
| 238 | ** Their Russian counterpart, the Russian-American Company, owned and ruled Alaska. |
| 239 | ** There were projects to create another one in modern times, called the Russian Far East Corp. The project was discontinued, and a government bureaucratic structure was created instead. |
| 240 | * Going eastward: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (known in English as the Dutch East India Company). The first stock-based, multinational corporation, it controlled parts of Indonesia for almost 200 years. They had their own military, minted their own currency, and had the right to establish colonies, negotiate treaties, and even wage wars! Their rule made an everlasting impression to locals even after they went bankrupt and the official Dutch government took over. So much that their legacy lives on to this day; the local word for colonial forces is still "Kompeni". |
| 241 | ** In fact, the entire nation of Indonesia is essentially the Dutch East India Company's old territory plus sovereignty. It's currently the fourth most populous country in the world, the world's most populous island country, and the world's most populous Muslim country. |
| 242 | * The Dutch ''West'' India Company established New Amsterdam in 1621 on Manhattan as a trading post, and later a base for privateers. They also briefly took control of part of Brazil but nearly went bankrupt in the process, dissolving in 1674 at the end of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, where New Amsterdam became New York City. |
| 243 | * The emirate of Dubai is run very much like a business enterprise based around tourism, trade, and finance. |
| 244 | * The old [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State Congo Free State]]. The people of UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} were adamantly ''against'' joining the imperialism game, so King Leopold pulled some strings to have the whole thing done as a private enterprise initiative, turning the land into private grounds with a captive workforce that took in chains, ammo and mercenaries and churned out ivory, rubber, and corpses. It eventually got so bad that the Belgian government officially nationalized the Congo, bringing them into the colonial system anyway. One estimate has it that the Congolese population was reduced by half in about twenty years. |
| 245 | * And long before all of these boys were even glimmers in their founders' eyes was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanse the Hanseatic League]], also known as simply The Hansa. Founded in the 1200s, it was a mercantile and defensive confederation of the merchant guilds along the northern coast of Europe that lasted well into the 17th century. There were actually ''multiple'' Hansas early on, but the North German one got so dominant that if you just referred to ''the'' Hansa everyone knew which one you meant. |
| 246 | * The Reedy Creek Improvement District, the site of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World]], was the closest thing to this trope that existed in the United States. The power of the state of UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} amounted to the collection of property taxes and little else; the head of Florida's Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection admitted that he lacked the authority to even [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-cia-helped-disney-conquer-florida enforce ride safety laws]]. Beyond that, the two towns Creator/{{Disney}} created to serve as the municipal government for the resort, Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, existed mainly to provide municipal bonds and friendly regulations, their combined population of about sixty hand-picked residents comprised entirely of Disney employees. However, in 2022 the Florida state government took control of the district, renaming it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. |
| 247 | * While UsefulNotes/NorthKorea is known for being a hellhole run by DirtyCommunists, UsefulNotes/SouthKorea went in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahl1lexWxbM the complete opposite direction]]. The government is basically held hostage by Samsung and its 80+ subsidiaries (and to a lesser degree SK, Hyundai, and LG) as it's the nation's largest employer and controls ''20%'' of their GDP (for reference, America's largest employer Walmart makes up only 2% of the economy). Demand for a job with Samsung is so high all the country's children spend 16 hours a day studying to try to get into top universities before getting plastic surgery as adults to be more attractive and boost their chances, and even then the company has its ''own'' standardized tests to filter applicants. On two separate occasions, Samsung executives have been pardoned by the President after corruption scandals in order to preserve the economy. |
| 248 | * This idea is often used by "Reichsbürger" (literally "realm citizens") against the actual state of Germany to dismiss its legal existence. They argue that the entire German state post-1945 is invalid since, to them, it is merely a giant corporation, and every German citizen ([[{{Hypocrite}} except themselves of course]]) is and can only be "personnel" of that corporation. There are many different types, and almost all of them claim to represent any of a multitude of fake German exile governments who, according to them, are clearly the real and lawful rulers of the German state (this whole thing immediately falls apart by the mere fact that there are ''multiple'' exile governments all claiming rule against each other). Some of them even try to sell fake passports to gullible people, which naturally are not legally recognized by anyone, anywhere. |
| 249 | ** Similar odd claims are made by the American "sovereign citizen" movement, and fraudulent micro-"states" have also been set up there, which also issue "passports" etc. |
| 250 | ** In the NewRussia, meanwhile, the "USSR citizens" also promote the notion that Russian Federation is but a commercial organzation, that the dissolution of USSR was illegitimate, and claim to be the true descendants of the Soviet authorities. Similar to their German and American counterparts, they also issue pseudo-[=IDs=] for a "fee" and refuse to pay their bills and fines on frivolous claims. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Slavic_Forces_of_Russia Here's the most famous one.]] |
| 251 | * Crossing over with NGOSuperpower, Saudi Aramco is ''the'' biggest company in the world, worth around 10 '''trillion''' dollars at sufficiently high oil prices thanks to the sheer size of proven oil reserves under Saudi Arabian (and thus Aramco) control. Owned by the Saudi royal family, it has diversified its assets into manufacturing, services, defense, and mining. In some ways, UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia is not so much a country with an oil company, but an oil company with a country. |
| 252 | * [[https://apnews.com/article/legislature-legislation-local-governments-nevada-economy-2fa79128a7bf41073c1e9102e8a0e5f0 There was a Nevada bill circulating]] that, should it go into law, would allow Tech Companies to create "Innovation Zones" which amount to said companies instating their own local governments. |
| 253 | * In spite of the names "Universal City", Californa and "Universal Studios Hollywood", Universal City is an uncorpated area owned by Universal Pictures where Universal Studios "Hollywood" is located and has the only government-funded fire station located on private property, which was even changed from LA County Fire Department Station 60 to LACFD Station 51 in the mid 90s due to LACFD Station 51 being the setting of ''Series/{{Emergency}}'', in spite of it being filmed at LACFD Station 127. |
| 254 | [[/folder]] |
| 255 |
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