Wild west and “crony” capitalism

Capitalism without rules and capitalism with rigged rules are the two sides of the same coin. In fact, despite claiming to be capitalist, such economic systems violate its basic foundations, namely free markets and the rule of law.

The absence of any form of regulation, whether on working conditions or environment, is often associated with the early days of capitalism in XIX century England. However, Anderson and Hill in their “An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism: The Not So Wild, Wild West”, re-interpreted the wild west history as an experimental libertarian society. They claim that “Private agencies provided the necessary basis for an orderly society in which property was protected and conflicts were resolved. These agencies often did not qualify as governments because they did not have a legal monopoly on "keeping order."”

This is a mistaken reinterpretation of facts. Indeed, all historical experiments quickly have shown that someone (the government) stepped in with a monopoly over law and its enforcement before the country collapsed from civil war or banditry. This has happened in all revolutionary processes as well as in the development of private law experiments (e.g. securities law in XVII century Amsterdam or the merchant courts in medieval Europe).

Presently we may find examples of wild west capitalism in failed states (e.g. Somalia or Libya) or in special territories enjoying reduced or non-existent regulation (e.g. the special enterprise zones in China).

However, the most common is to find situations where, although private property is protected from extortion by law, the law itself and its enforcement may be twisted in favor of the rulers and their acolytes. Like in “wild west” societies, business is carried out under the law of the jungle but this time the strongest is protected by the state. This type of “crony capitalism” is common in dictatorships but exists also in democratic societies.

The “cronies” typically use their control of the state to raid other people’s property, to get rid of competitors, to get favorable tax treatment, privileged access to financing and to secure government procurement contracts and concessions. Often, these advantages are also secured through protection against corruption charges.

Crony capitalism exists to some extent in most capitalist economies but only when favoritism is rampant can we talk of a “crony capitalistic” system.

Unfortunately, there are too many past and present examples of crony capitalism. Among the most extreme historical examples we may mention the Suharto and Mobutu families in Indonesia and Zaire, respectively. Presently, Putin’s Russia or Chaves’ Venezuela are also two of the most extreme examples, although the later would be better described as crony socialism. Obviously, the more regulated a sector is the greater the scope for crony capitalism. For instance, in sectors like banking, real estate, utilities, telecoms, natural resources and casinos. So, not surprisingly, in 2014 the Economist ranked Hong Kong, Russia, Malaysia, Ukraine and Singapore as the top five countries in terms of crony-sector wealth.

The antidotes to crony capitalism are the rule of law and free markets. Indeed, as long as these are upheld, as they should in societies with representative democracy and constitutional liberalism, market capitalism will never degenerate into “crony capitalism” as is frequently anticipated by Marxists and other anti-capitalist movements.

It is important to remember that in their initial stages countries under crony capitalism economies often experience substantial economic growth driven by public or speculative investment. However, when such levels of unsustainable investment comes to a halt due to losses and lack of financing the economic miracle always collapses with huge amounts of debt, abandoned investments and unemployment.

That is, even when apparently successful, one should not be fooled because in the end crony capitalism will always bring misery and a huge misallocation of resources.

Likewise, the frequent examples of crony capitalism under systems of state and managerial capitalism should not be used to confuse these systems with crony capitalism, because such systems have a deliberate policy to change the workings of capitalism.