Editing Mars trilogy (section)

=== Corporations ===
Trans-national Corporations, nicknamed "transnats", are extremely powerful multinational corporations that first emerge in the mid-21st century.  Robinson tracks the evolution of the transnats into what he terms "metanats" (metanational).  These multinational corporations have grown so large as a result of [[globalization]] that they have sufficient economic power to take over or strongly manipulate national governments, initially only relatively small [[Third World|third-world]] governments, but later, larger developed governments too, effectively running whole countries. In Robinson's [[future history]], the metanational corporations become similar to [[nation-state]]s in some respects, while continually attempting to take over competitors in order to become the sole controller of the [[wikt:interplanetary|interplanetary]] [[Market (economics)|market]]. As the ''Mars'' trilogy draws to a close in the mid-23rd century, the metanational corporations are forced by a global [[Disaster|catastrophe]] to concede more democratic powers to their workforces.

Although there are many transnational and metanational corporations mentioned, two play an active role in the development of the plotline: Praxis, a largely benevolent and relatively democratic firm, and Subarashī, which plays a large role in the maltreatment of the citizens of Mars.