Crony capitalism

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Crony capitalism" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Crony capitalism, sometimes also called simply cronyism, is a pejorative term used in political discourse to describe a situation in which businesses profit from a close relationship with state power, either through an anti-competitive regulatory environment, direct government largesse, and/or corruption.^[1] Examples given for crony capitalism include obtainment of permits, government grants,^[2] tax breaks,^[2] or other undue influence from businesses over the state's deployment of public goods, for example, mining concessions for primary commodities or contracts for public works.^[3] In other words, it is used to describe a situation where businesses thrive not as a result of free enterprise, but rather collusion between a business class and the political class.^[4][5]

Wealth is then accumulated not merely by making a profit in the market, but through profiteering by rent seeking using this monopoly or oligopoly. Entrepreneurship and innovative practices which seek to reward risk are stifled since the value-added is little by crony businesses^{[citation needed]}, as hardly anything of significant value is created by them^{[citation needed]}, with transactions taking the form of trading^{[clarification needed]}. Crony capitalism spills over into the government, the politics, and the media,^[6] when this nexus distorts the economy and affects society to an extent it corrupts public-serving economic, political, and social ideals.^{[7][clarification needed]}