Editing Crony capitalism (section)

== Political viewpoints ==
{{misleading|date=May 2016}}
While the problem is generally accepted across the political spectrum, ideology shades the view of the problem's causes and therefore its solutions. Political views mostly fall into two camps which might be called the socialist and capitalist critique. The socialist position is that crony capitalism is the inevitable result of any strictly capitalist system and thus broadly democratic government must regulate economic, or wealthy, interests to restrict monopoly. The capitalist position is that [[natural monopolies]] are rare, therefore governmental regulations generally abet established wealthy interests by restricting competition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gothamist.com/2014/11/29/uber_driving_down_price_of_taxi_med.php |title=Uber Driving Down Price of Taxi Medallions |access-date=January 8, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103083819/http://gothamist.com/2014/11/29/uber_driving_down_price_of_taxi_med.php |archive-date=January 3, 2015 }}</ref>

=== Socialist critique ===
Critics of crony capitalism including [[socialism|socialists]] and [[anti-capitalism|anti-capitalists]] often assert that so-called crony capitalism is simply the inevitable result of any strictly capitalist system. [[Jane Jacobs]] described it as a natural consequence of collusion between those managing [[power (sociology)|power]] and trade while [[Noam Chomsky]] has argued that the word crony is superfluous when describing capitalism.<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20081114.htm "Black Faces in Limousines:" A Conversation with Noam Chomsky] from Chomsky.info. Retrieved June 5, 2009</ref> Since businesses make money and money leads to political power, business will inevitably use their power to influence governments. Much of the impetus behind [[campaign finance reform in the United States]] and in other countries is an attempt to prevent economic power from being used to take political power.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-05-14 |title=Influence of Big Money {{!}} Brennan Center for Justice |url=https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/reform-money-politics/influence-big-money |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=www.brennancenter.org |language=en}}</ref>

[[Ravi Batra]] argues that "all official economic measures adopted since 1981 ... have devastated the middle class" and that the [[Occupy Wall Street]] movement should push for their repeal and thus end the influence of the super wealthy in the political process which he considers a manifestation of crony capitalism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-wall-street-movement-and-coming-demise-crony-capitalism/1318341474 |title=The Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Coming Demise of Crony Capitalism |first=Ravi |last=Batra |publisher=[[Truthout]] |date=October 11, 2011 |access-date=October 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013183247/http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-wall-street-movement-and-coming-demise-crony-capitalism/1318341474 |archive-date=October 13, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Socialist economists, such as [[Robin Hahnel]], have criticized the term as an ideologically motivated attempt to cast what is in their view the fundamental problems of capitalism as avoidable irregularities.<ref>{{cite web |title=Let's Review |url=http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/bpn/znet/april08.txt |author=Robin Hahnel |quote=IMF officials Michel Camdessus and Stanley Fischer were quick to explain that the afflicted economies had only themselves to blame. Crony capitalism, lack of transparency, accounting procedures not up to international standards, and weak-kneed politicians too quick to spend and too afraid to tax were the problems according to IMF and US Treasury Department officials. The fact that the afflicted economies had been held up as paragons of virtue and IMF/World Bank success stories only a year before, the fact that neoliberalism's only success story had been the Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC's) who were now in the tank, and the fact that the IMF and Treasury department story just didn't fit the facts since the afflicted economies were no more rife with crony capitalism, lack of transparency, and weak-willed politicians than dozens of other economies untouched by the Asian financial crisis, simply did not matter. |author-link=Robin Hahnel |access-date=2011-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060910183553/http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/bpn/znet/april08.txt |archive-date=2006-09-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Socialist economists dismiss the term as an [[apologetic]] for failures of [[neoliberal]] policy and more fundamentally their perception of the weaknesses of market allocation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rodrik |first=Dani |date=2017-11-14 |title=The fatal flaw of neoliberalism: it's bad economics |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/14/the-fatal-flaw-of-neoliberalism-its-bad-economics |access-date=2023-06-28 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

=== Capitalist critique ===
Supporters of capitalism also generally oppose crony capitalism. Further, supporters such as [[classical liberals]], [[neoliberals]] and [[right-libertarians]] consider it an aberration brought on by governmental favors incompatible with the [[free market]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Crony Capitalism Comes Home|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/opinion/kristof-crony-capitalism-comes-homes.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/opinion/kristof-crony-capitalism-comes-homes.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|access-date=November 27, 2011|quote=some financiers have chosen to live in a government-backed featherbed. Their platform seems to be socialism for tycoons and capitalism for the rest of us...featherbedding by both unions and tycoons...are impediments to a well-functioning market economy.|author=Nicholas D. Kristof|date=October 26, 2011|work=The New York Times}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Let's Take the "Crony" Out of "Crony Capitalism"|url=http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/let-s-take-the-crony-out-of-crony-capitalism.html|access-date=November 26, 2011|quote=The truth is that we don't have a free market—government regulation and management are pervasive—so it's misleading to say that "capitalism" caused today's problems. The free market is innocent. But it's fair to say that crony capitalism created the economic mess.|author=John Stossel|year=2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513123436/http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/let-s-take-the-crony-out-of-crony-capitalism.html|archive-date=May 13, 2012|author-link=John Stossel}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=December 2021}}. In the capitalist view, cronyism is the result of an excess of interference in the market which inevitably will result in a toxic combination of corporations and government officials running sectors of the economy. For instance, the ''Financial Times'' observed that, in Vietnam during the 2010s, the primary beneficiaries of cronyism were Communist party officials, noting also the "common practice of employing only party members and their family members and associates to government jobs or to jobs in state-owned enterprises."<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Rise Of Crony Capitalism|url=https://www.hoover.org/research/rise-crony-capitalism|access-date=2021-03-04|website=Hoover Institution|language=en}}</ref>

Conservative commentator [[Ben Shapiro]] prefers to equate this problem with terms such as [[corporatocracy]] or [[corporatism]], considered "a modern form of [[mercantilism]]",<ref>{{cite web|title=There's No Such Thing as "Crony Capitalism"|url=http://www.dev.creators.com/conservative/ben-shapiro/there-s-no-such-thing-as-quot-crony-capitalism-quot.html|access-date=November 26, 2011|quote=This "crony capitalism," [[Sarah Palin]] said, is "not the capitalism of free men and free markets." In general, she's right. But...her terminology...is dead wrong. The fact is that there is no such thing as "crony capitalism." In reality, it is corporatism, a modern form of [[mercantilism]]. Corporatism is based on the notion that industries comprise the economy like body parts comprise the body—they must work in concert with one another, and they must take central direction.|author=Ben Shapiro|year=2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426002619/http://www.dev.creators.com/conservative/ben-shapiro/there-s-no-such-thing-as-quot-crony-capitalism-quot.html|archive-date=April 26, 2012|author-link=Ben Shapiro}}</ref> to emphasize that the only way to run a profitable business in such a system is to have help from corrupt government officials. Likewise, [[Hernando de Soto (economist)|Hernando de Soto]] said that mercantilism "is also known as 'crony' or 'noninclusive' capitalism".<ref>{{cite news |last1=de Soto |first1=Hernando |title=The Real Enemy for Trump Is Mercantilism, Not Globalism |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-real-enemy-for-trump-is-mercantilism-not-globalism-1480279192 |website=The Wall Street Journal |date=November 27, 2016 |access-date=16 October 2021}}</ref>

Even if the initial regulation was well-intentioned (to curb actual abuses) and even if the initial lobbying by corporations was well-intentioned (to reduce illogical regulations), the mixture of business and government stifles competition,<ref>{{cite web|title=Let's Take the "Crony" Out of "Crony Capitalism"|url=http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/let-s-take-the-crony-out-of-crony-capitalism.html|access-date=November 26, 2011|quote=Which are more likely to be hampered by vigorous regulatory standards: entrenched corporations with their overstaffed legal and accounting departments or small startups trying to get off the ground? Regulation can kill competition—and incumbents like it that way.|author=John Stossel|year=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513123436/http://www.creators.com/opinion/john-stossel/let-s-take-the-crony-out-of-crony-capitalism.html|archive-date=May 13, 2012|author-link=John Stossel}}</ref> a collusive result called [[regulatory capture]]. [[Burton W. Folsom Jr.]] distinguishes those who engage in crony capitalism—designated by him political entrepreneurs—from those who compete in the marketplace without special aid from the government, whom he calls market entrepreneurs. While market entrepreneurs such as [[James J. Hill]], [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] and [[John D. Rockefeller]] succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price, political entrepreneurs such as [[Edward Knight Collins|Edward Collins]] in steamships and the leaders of the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] in railroads were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies or in some way use the government to stop competitors.<ref>{{cite web|title=Myth of the Robber Barons|url=http://www.burtfolsom.com/?page_id=29|access-date=November 28, 2011|quote=The author, Burton Folsom, divides the entrepreneurs into two groups:  market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs.|last1=Folsom|first1=Burton|author-link=Burton W. Folsom, Jr.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128125228/http://www.burtfolsom.com/?page_id=29|archive-date=November 28, 2011}}</ref>