Corporate Republic

A government that fits well into a cyberpunk universe is the Corporate Republic. Essentially, it's a government where all the members are company owners. All services are provided by these mega-corporations either a bonuses to it workers or paid services. The military is a conglomerate of Private Military Companies, Contractors and Mercenaries. The National Health Service(s) is paid for either by you, or your company. Same with the firefighters, police, detal service and everything.

In the Corporate Republic, everything is money, and money is everything. Citizens take up jobs. In return for their services, they can get insurances covering arson, accidents, theft. The higher up in the system you are, the more your contract covers. Employees are not only attracted with big salaries, but also contracts that has covering insurances. The more lucurative your insurance, the easier it is to get workers. This also creates a semi-monopoly for the mega-corporations. An upstart corner buisness can't give such an insurance. Burn their store down, and they won't have enough money to pay the police for the investiagtion. As a result, only the somewhat rich can create larger buisnesses. Sure, you can run a corner tobaccoist, but don't try to become the next Microsoft, because then Yakuza delinquents will come at night and steal your hard-drive. Guess who hired the Yakuza? Now, maybe you can sell some shared to Falcon Defensive Services. They protect against intruders, against a healthy 10% of the income, and $100,000 up front. Now, Falcon D.S. is owned by Thell International, who gets 10% of Falcon D.S' income. Essentailly, feudalism at work. A social/economic pyramid structure, with money moving upwards as shares, protection money and investments. Then it moves down again as payment. Our Next-Microsoft devlops some software which they sell for a few million. 1% moves into the hands of Thell International, who owns thousands of such daughter-companies. Thell invest it's money in something, and gets money back, or they withdraw their services.

Of course, there needs to be a legal system for this to be a single nation. The CEO's of the largest companies, as well as union representatives form a semi-democratic government that votes on laws. The unions are essentially companies that offer one thing. Votes. You pay to be a member. In return, you can vote for a representative, who can become the Union Representative in the government. In that way the unions serve as a buffer against abusive CEOs. The CEOs follow the law to a certain degree, held in place by PMCs and Mercenaries paid for by other CEO's and Unions. CEOs realize that it's easier to pay the fine and spend a few years in jail than start a civil war (Which is costly) so they buckled under for the law, and just plan to bribe their way out. Of course, because money is everything and everything is money, the CEO could easily bribe the judge and the jury, couldn't he?

Because of the pyramid system, there is a constant fluxuation of people up and down. The CEOs stay on top because they are well protected in bullet proof vests, not because they do a good job. The Unions prevent exploitation by paying for investiagtions and voting in the publics' interest. The CEOs are in a constant Mexican Standoff with their PMC and mercenaries. It's still a dog-eat-dog world though. Don't expect anyone to stand up for your rights unless you can pay a union.

Next, I'll try to cover the Netocracy.
-LatwPIAT