ABSTRACT
Corporations can mitigate fears of excessive corporate power, if not outright dominance, by accepting the model of a political marketplace and constructing ways to implement it. Its fundamental requirement is the maintenance of competition among society’s myriad of interests. Just as the economic marketplace requires vigorous competition to work properly and protect the public interest, so does the political marketplace.1 When competition exists everybody can pursue their economic interests and express their personal viewpoints because, as Adam Smith stated, the “invisible hand” of the marketplace allows people to work for their own self-interest and still produce a desirable social outcome.2 In the economic marketplace, the existence of competition with many buyers and sellers prevents the domination by any one of them because the price is set by the market. Similarly, in the political marketplace competition among a diversity of interest groups enables people to promote their position on issues and compete in influencing public policy.
