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Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of state interventionism. Crony capitalism is believed to arise when business cronyism and related self-serving behavior by businesses or businesspeople spills over into politics and government,〔''The Discovery that Business Corrupts Politics: A Reappraisal of the Origins of Progressivism'', by McCormick, Richard. 1981. The American Historical Review, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 247-274.〕 or when self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals. The term "crony capitalism" made a significant impact in the public arena as an explanation of the Asian financial crisis. It is also used to describe governmental decisions favoring "cronies" of governmental officials. In this context, the term is often used interchangeably with corporate welfare; to the extent that there is a difference, it may be the extent to which a government action can be said to benefit individuals rather than entire industries. ==In practice== Crony capitalism exists along a continuum. In its lightest form, crony capitalism consists of collusion among market players which is officially tolerated or encouraged by the government. While perhaps lightly competing against each other, they will present a unified front (sometimes called a trade association or industry trade group) to the government in requesting subsidies or aid or regulation.〔 〕 Newcomers to a market may find it difficult to find loans, acquire shelf space, or receive official sanction. Some such systems are very formalized, such as sports leagues and the Medallion System of the Taxicabs of New York City, but often the process is more subtle, such as expanding training and certification exams to make it more expensive for new entrants to enter a market and thereby limit competition. In technological fields, there may evolve a system whereby new entrants may be accused of infringing on patents that the established competitors never assert against each other. In spite of this, some competitors may succeed when the legal barriers are light. The term crony capitalism is generally used when these practices come to dominate the economy as a whole or to dominate the most valuable industries in an economy.〔 Intentionally ambiguous laws and regulations are common in such systems. Taken strictly, such laws would greatly impede practically all business; in practice, they are only erratically enforced. The specter of having such laws suddenly brought down upon a business provides incentive to stay in the good graces of political officials. Troublesome rivals who have overstepped their bounds can have the laws suddenly enforced against them, leading to fines or even jail time. Even in high-income democracies with well-established legal systems and freedom of the press a larger state is associated with more political corruption.〔Hamilton, Alexander (2013), Small is beautiful, at least in high-income democracies: the distribution of policy-making responsibility, electoral accountability, and incentives for rent extraction (), World Bank.〕 The term crony capitalism was initially applied to states involved in the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis such as Thailand and Indonesia. In these cases, the term was used to point out how family members of the ruling leaders become extremely wealthy with no non-political justification. Southeast Asian nations still score very poorly in rankings measuring this. Hong Kong, and Malaysia〔http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1213&context=facultyworkingpapers〕 are perhaps most noted for this, and the term has also been applied to the system of Oligarchs in Russia. Other states to which the term has been applied include India, in particular, the system after the 1990s liberalization whereby land and other resources were given at throwaway prices in the name of public private partnerships, Argentina;, and Greece. Wu Jinglian, one of China's leading economists and a longtime advocate of its transition to free markets, says that it faces two starkly contrasting futures: a market economy under the rule of law or crony capitalism. Many prosperous nations have also had varying amounts of cronyism throughout their history including the United Kingdom - especially in the 1600s and 1700s, United States,〔 and Japan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Crony capitalism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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