Talk:State capture

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Shannontimmins.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:48, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Definition

The State Capture definition requires clarification and detail. A more detailed definition has been written as follows:

"'State Capture' is a type of systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a State's decision-making process to their own advantage. The advantage is usually hidden but may be considered legal or lawful, depending on determination by the Captured State itself. The government's capture by non-democratic private interests exists via a range of State institutions; subverted by that private interest/influence. The influence may be manifest in Legislative, Executive, Ministerial, or Judicial branches so captured; or by a corrupt electoral process. 'State Capture' is similar to 'Regulatory Capture' but differs by its wider manifestation, and, unlike Regulatory Capture, State Capture's private influence is not overt and cannot be discovered by lawful processes, since either (or all) the legislative process, judiciary, electoral process and/or executive powers have already been influenced and subverted by the private special interests."

For actual examples, we may consider a group like ALEC (American Legal Exchange Council) or PAC electoral influence, to legislation like Gramm-Leach-Bliley of Sarbanes Oxley, or banks removing important language from Dodd-Frank to strip the bill (as examples) and when time permits I'll have a go. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Montoya44 (talk • contribs) 18:42, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

How are corruption and state capture different? Why is state capture not considered a form of corruption? Shannontimmins (talk) 20:22, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Slovakia

Add Slovakia to the list of offending countries. The events and revelations of 2018-2019 show a remarkable degree of near-complete collapse of respect for the rule of law by ruling politicians and ruling parties, and the large-scale collussion of ruling and powerful politicians with organised crime, dubious oligarchs, corrupt figures in the entire judicial system, and even disinformation spreading conspiracy theory "media". Based on all of the findings, Slovakia has suffered a level of state capture roughly on a level somewhere between Bulgaria and Hungary. This absolutely needs to be documented. Every bit of it. For the future political history of a united Europe, it could prove a major and valuable cautionary tale.

I know we should be bold, but I'd prefer to leave this to an expert on the terminology and this exact field. Thank you, anyone, for considering this proposal.

--ZemplinTemplar (talk) 17:41, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Academic reports

I have shortened and toned down recent additions relating to academic reports on state capture in South Africa. The preceding edits were by an IP editor and by user Chipkini (possibly one of the authors of the work in question). In particular, I removed additions that I thought were mainly about promoting the work, rather than contributing to the subject matter itself. Paul W (talk) 15:19, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Media capture in Hungary

I 'm not able to insert this picture as an example of the Uniformised county newspaper frontpages in Hungary (24 December 2019) 193.6.168.20 (talk) 11:58, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

It appears to be a copyrighted image (used on this webpage), attributed to 444.hu, so cannot be used on Wikipedia; see Wikipedia:Image use policy. Paul W (talk) 13:18, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

The date is wrong

The article says the term "state capture" was first used by the World Bank in 2000. This is not correct -- I read the term while in grad school in sociology in the early 1990s. It was already in use by scholars in political economy and development by then. 2601:CD:C800:C6D0:31CF:E9F8:85BC:F218 (talk) 00:36, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

Add Israel, current gov't

2023 Israeli judicial reform protests: government accused of attempted state capture by judicial coup. See Israel's democratic unravelling]: The judicial overhaul is just the first step in the far-right government's plan to transform the country, Joshua Leifer for The New Statesman, 12 September 2023: "The dismantling of the judiciary was to be, and may yet prove to be, the last step in the settler movement’s thrust for state capture." (see link here). Arminden (talk) 16:05, 9 August 2024 (UTC)

Hungary section

I removed the entire Hungary section. None of the sources explicitly mentioned state capture. Furthermore, I regarded it conceptually as off-topic. See § Differentiating from other concepts. Daask (talk) 22:16, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Differentiating from other concepts

State capture refers to a government making decisions based on their financial benefit to specific private individuals or corporations instead of the general welfare of society. It does not include a government making decisions in order to curry favor from another government, or in response to pressure by another government. It is not kleptocracy or embezzlement, which involve political leaders obtaining wealth for themselves instead of for a private interest. It is closely related with regulatory capture, clientelism, political patronage, influence peddling, access money and state-business collusion. Daask (talk) 22:16, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Really racist article.

It presents state capture as something that affects the "underdeveloped" ones. Why EU is missing from the article? Why USA is missing? ~2025-42738-04 (talk) 09:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Examples are expanding the meaning

State capture involves select private business interests gaining disproportionate influence over state institutions. It is a systemic form of corruption in favour of particular sectors, entities or families within the business class. South Africa and the Gupta family were the example. It arises when a business group or family can make or break politicians and demand and receive special treatment.

One political party becoming dominant and self-perpetuating in a political system, and acting to protect and expand its control through authoritarian acts, is not “state capture”. Similarly, no sector of the business class has “captured” the U.S. state. Trump’s own businesses, those of his family, former lawyers, friends and entourage have simply cashed in on Trump’s veniality and are profiting from the open corruption of Trump’s presidency. ~2026-33878-62 (talk) 23:29, 7 June 2026 (UTC)