State capture

State capture is the shaping of laws and public policy by private interests to secure advantages for themselves. It can operate through formal institutions or informal influence.

Regulatory capture: A process in which a regulatory agency advances the interests of the industries it oversees rather than the public interest. It is a sector-specific form of private influence over public rules.
Post-communist transition: The political and economic transformation of communist states after the collapse of communist rule in Europe and Eurasia. State capture became a prominent framework for analyzing institutional change during these transitions.
Bulgaria: A country in southeastern Europe and a member of the European Union. Investigations and reform debates have examined the influence of business and political networks on Bulgarian institutions.
Clientelism: A political system of exchanging targeted benefits for political support. Clientelism trades selective benefits for support; capture reshapes public rules to favor private interests.
Rule of law: The principle that public power is constrained by publicly known laws applied consistently and impartially. Capture undermines equal application of law by bending rules toward favored interests.
Political corruption: The abuse of entrusted public power for private gain. Corrupt exchanges can secure the decisions that state capture seeks to shape.
Joel Hellman: A political economist whose research helped establish the concept of state capture in post-communist studies. His work distinguished capture from influence exercised through ordinary political competition.
Hungary: A landlocked country in central Europe and a member of the European Union. The concentration of political and economic power has prompted analysis of institutional capture.
Patronage: The distribution of public jobs or resources in return for political loyalty or support. Patronage allocates benefits to supporters, while capture can alter policy for powerful private actors.
Economic inequality: Unequal distribution of income, wealth, or economic resources among people or groups. Policy advantages obtained through capture can concentrate wealth and reinforce political influence.

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