Concentrated capital uses state power when market power proves insufficient

Evidence

The concentration of capital leads to uneven development in several related ways. Its superiority of resources allows the privileged minority to drive out small-scale opposition through superior market power, more co­ ordinated organization and planning, ability to employ advanced and largescale technology, and a correspondingly higher rate of capital accumula­ tion. Were this not enough, concentrated capital has consistently supplemented its power by securing a stronghold in government and thereby obtained legislation, judicial opinion, and, where necessary, armed intervention to aid its expansion. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 664

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels earlier learned material on the U.S. military-industrial complex and base-building — armed intervention to aid capital expansion recurs across spheres.
• DEFINE: Useful as a compact account of uneven development’s mechanism: market power plus state capture, escalating to coercion.