Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation

This article discusses the role of big tech in becoming an engine of capturing public power. We focus on tech capitalist classes and their determination to capture both the economic benefit and the political decision. First, the article does so by bringing to the fore input from Weber’s political ca...

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Main Author: Filippa Chatzistavrou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2024-12-01
Series:Frontiers in Political Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2024.1509376/full
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author Filippa Chatzistavrou
author_facet Filippa Chatzistavrou
author_sort Filippa Chatzistavrou
collection DOAJ
description This article discusses the role of big tech in becoming an engine of capturing public power. We focus on tech capitalist classes and their determination to capture both the economic benefit and the political decision. First, the article does so by bringing to the fore input from Weber’s political capitalism to explain the linkages between state and tech capitalists as the illustration of a structural dependence where lobbying activities are intensified. Second, pushing further the generally admitted idea of states and markets being co-constitutive allows to broaden the concept of political capitalism to include not only rent seeking, property rights’ issues, and surplus extraction mechanisms but also models of governance. The study suggests that in the case of digital capitalism, property rights on productive resources, originally private while also publicly subsidized, can make big tech not just shapers of common values but also providers of public goods.
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publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
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spelling doaj-art-37d79a154e6047c2b6250f0744d9c0782025-08-20T02:34:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Political Science2673-31452024-12-01610.3389/fpos.2024.15093761509376Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relationFilippa ChatzistavrouThis article discusses the role of big tech in becoming an engine of capturing public power. We focus on tech capitalist classes and their determination to capture both the economic benefit and the political decision. First, the article does so by bringing to the fore input from Weber’s political capitalism to explain the linkages between state and tech capitalists as the illustration of a structural dependence where lobbying activities are intensified. Second, pushing further the generally admitted idea of states and markets being co-constitutive allows to broaden the concept of political capitalism to include not only rent seeking, property rights’ issues, and surplus extraction mechanisms but also models of governance. The study suggests that in the case of digital capitalism, property rights on productive resources, originally private while also publicly subsidized, can make big tech not just shapers of common values but also providers of public goods.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2024.1509376/fullstate captureelitespolitical capitalismlobbyinghigh-techSilicon Valley
spellingShingle Filippa Chatzistavrou
Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation
Frontiers in Political Science
state capture
elites
political capitalism
lobbying
high-tech
Silicon Valley
title Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation
title_full Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation
title_fullStr Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation
title_full_unstemmed Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation
title_short Political capitalism in the digital era: reconstructing the capital–state relation
title_sort political capitalism in the digital era reconstructing the capital state relation
topic state capture
elites
political capitalism
lobbying
high-tech
Silicon Valley
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2024.1509376/full
work_keys_str_mv AT filippachatzistavrou politicalcapitalisminthedigitalerareconstructingthecapitalstaterelation