Megacorp
Encyclopedia
"Megacorporation" is a term popularized by William Gibson
derived from the combination of the prefix mega- with the word corporation
. It has become a term popularly used in cyberpunk
literature. It refers to a corporation (normally fictional) that is a massive conglomerate
, holding monopolistic
or near-monopolistic control over multiple markets (thus exhibiting both a horizontal and a vertical monopoly). Megacorps are so powerful that they can ignore the law
, possess their own heavily-armed (often military
-sized) private armies, hold 'sovereign
' territory, and possibly even act as outright governments
. They often exercise a large degree of control over their employees, taking the idea of 'corporate culture' to an extreme. Such organizations are a staple of science fiction long predating cyberpunk, appearing in the works of writers such as Philip K. Dick
(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
), Thea von Harbou
(Metropolis
), Robert A. Heinlein
(Citizen of the Galaxy
), Robert Asprin
(The Cold Cash War
) and Andre Norton
(the Solar Queen novels).
Almost all depictions of a megacorporation show them as amoral (unconcerned with using ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in their decision-making process) operating purely out of a desire to achieve productivity, profit and efficiency as a machine would. Very few corporations in the world currently meet the criteria to be considered true megacorporations, so the concept remains contained in the realm of speculative fiction
.
, certain real-life corporations have achieved or approached megacorporation status in various ways. Today antitrust
laws in various countries attempt to prevent megacorporation status.
The Dutch East India Company
was the first multinational corporation
in the world to issue stock
. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.
Disney
is one of the few multinational corporation
s to achieve a large degree of self-governmental control, in the Florida region known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District
. Within this district, the Disney corporation has the legal authority to establish its own building codes, power plants, and utilities, fire department
s, and to seize land outside the district under eminent domain
. The corporation protects itself from outside interference by permitting only Disney employees to own land within the district, keeping voting power to elect district managers (also Disney employees) within company control, and thereby preventing restriction on company actions and projects within the district.
The Hudson's Bay Company
once owned most of the British colonies in Canada
, where they were the only law enforcement agency and the main contact between the First Nations
and British civilization.
The East India Company
played the role of a megacorporation in India, raising its own army and administering large portions of the Indian subcontinent for 250 years, before being absorbed into the British Raj
.
The United Fruit Company
had major influences on the structure of Central American governments in the early 20th century. They owned land and were in charge of the land and had an army to fight and guard it, along with the United States Armed Forces
.
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
derived from the combination of the prefix mega- with the word corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
. It has become a term popularly used in cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
literature. It refers to a corporation (normally fictional) that is a massive conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
, holding monopolistic
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
or near-monopolistic control over multiple markets (thus exhibiting both a horizontal and a vertical monopoly). Megacorps are so powerful that they can ignore the law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, possess their own heavily-armed (often military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
-sized) private armies, hold 'sovereign
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
' territory, and possibly even act as outright governments
Corporatocracy
Corporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business...
. They often exercise a large degree of control over their employees, taking the idea of 'corporate culture' to an extreme. Such organizations are a staple of science fiction long predating cyberpunk, appearing in the works of writers such as Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the...
), Thea von Harbou
Thea von Harbou
Thea Gabriele von Harbou was a German actress, author and film director of Prussian aristocratic origin. She was born in Tauperlitz in the Kingdom of Bavaria.-Early work:...
(Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
), Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
(Citizen of the Galaxy
Citizen of the Galaxy
Citizen of the Galaxy is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction and published in hardcover in 1957 as one of the Heinlein juveniles by Scribner's...
), Robert Asprin
Robert Asprin
Robert Lynn Asprin was an American science fiction and fantasy author and active fan, best known for his humorous MythAdventures and Phule's Company series.- Background :...
(The Cold Cash War
The Cold Cash War
The Cold Cash War is a 1977 science fiction novel by Robert Asprin. Based on an earlier short story of the same title, it is set in a dystopian future. In this future, corporations, referred to as Zaibatsu, have moved some aspects of their competition from the economic to the military.The action...
) and Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
(the Solar Queen novels).
Almost all depictions of a megacorporation show them as amoral (unconcerned with using ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in their decision-making process) operating purely out of a desire to achieve productivity, profit and efficiency as a machine would. Very few corporations in the world currently meet the criteria to be considered true megacorporations, so the concept remains contained in the realm of speculative fiction
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
.
Real-life examples
Although the term itself arose out of science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, certain real-life corporations have achieved or approached megacorporation status in various ways. Today antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
laws in various countries attempt to prevent megacorporation status.
The Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
was the first multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
in the world to issue stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.
Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
is one of the few multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
s to achieve a large degree of self-governmental control, in the Florida region known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District
Reedy Creek Improvement District
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is the immediate governing jurisdiction for the land of the Walt Disney World Resort. As of the late 1990s, it comprised an area of within the outer limits of Orange and Osceola counties in Florida...
. Within this district, the Disney corporation has the legal authority to establish its own building codes, power plants, and utilities, fire department
Fire department
A fire department or fire brigade is a public or private organization that provides fire protection for a certain jurisdiction, which typically is a municipality, county, or fire protection district...
s, and to seize land outside the district under eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
. The corporation protects itself from outside interference by permitting only Disney employees to own land within the district, keeping voting power to elect district managers (also Disney employees) within company control, and thereby preventing restriction on company actions and projects within the district.
The Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
once owned most of the British colonies in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where they were the only law enforcement agency and the main contact between the First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
and British civilization.
The East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
played the role of a megacorporation in India, raising its own army and administering large portions of the Indian subcontinent for 250 years, before being absorbed into the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
.
The United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
had major influences on the structure of Central American governments in the early 20th century. They owned land and were in charge of the land and had an army to fight and guard it, along with the United States Armed Forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
.
See also
- CorporatocracyCorporatocracyCorporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business...
- Corporate republicCorporate RepublicA corporate republic is a theoretical form of government occasionally hypothesized in works of science fiction, though some historical nations such as medieval Florence might be said to have been governed as corporate republics...
- Evil corporationEvil corporationAn evil corporation is a staple of science fiction , usually a big multinational company which values profits over ethics....
- OligarchyOligarchyOligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
- PlutocracyPlutocracyPlutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. The word plutocracy is derived from the Ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern.-Usage:The term plutocracy is generally...