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In this scenario, the government is all the following at the same time:

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    $\begingroup$ How can it be crime if it is sanctioned by the government? $\endgroup$ Oct 18, 2016 at 15:50
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    $\begingroup$ How they can be loyal to respective corporations if they are loyal to one army? Sorry, but this doesn't make sense to me. $\endgroup$
    – Mołot
    Oct 18, 2016 at 16:03
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    $\begingroup$ @Bellerophon: it's illegal for non-government entities to commit. You can't run a protection racket or traffic in human cargo unless you get a government job that does that. $\endgroup$
    – Anonymous
    Oct 18, 2016 at 17:02
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    $\begingroup$ Seems to be working fairly well so far :-) $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Oct 18, 2016 at 18:10
  • $\begingroup$ Look into Narco-States $\endgroup$ Oct 18, 2016 at 18:16

3 Answers 3

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Society can exist, it's just a sub-ideal situation. People will go about their daily lives, trying to support themselves and their family. Some will attempt whatever pursuits they would have in a freer society - writing, or starting a restaurant, perhaps. Society can function. It just won't function... well.

Out of the three you listed, the two most likely to be able to support a well-functioning society are the corporatocracy, or a stratocracy. Neither one is an ideal government, but in the first case a group of corporations needs to work together to protect common interests, and some of these interests include ensuring that people have work, have money to buy food and other goods, and can otherwise continue funding the activities of the corporations. The biggest issue, however, is that working conditions will likely become horrible as companies try to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of workers, and living conditions for most workers will be atrocious.

A stratocracy is basically a military dictatorship. The amount of money spent on the military will likely be a drain on society (although I guess the United States has done OK despite our enormous military budget), but if the Head of State or the Heads of State (the generals at the top) are good at managing domestic affairs, society could function very well.

The problem with stratocracies and corporatocracies isn't that they can't govern well, or that society under one will always be horrible; the problem is that the people have to rely solely on the goodwill of the people in change. The people in charge have little incentive to govern well, or to make life better for the average person. Theoretically there's nothing preventing them from governing well, it's just that governing well is hard and if people don't have to do something hard, they're more likely not to do it.

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I would say that I've seen such system working quite a few times in RL. From more notable cases I'd point Putin's Russia. There is very high level of intermingling between high ranking gov official, oligarchs, special forces and organized crime.

The only technical difference that I'd point out is not "the government is a corporation or group of corporations", which in RL is technically speaking not true, but "high rank gov officials and their clans own all major corporations".

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This is basically how a plantation or latifundia or encomienda system works. The government is the owners or their employees and has a monopoly on political, economic, and military power. Everyone else is a slave.

While not exactly a pleasant place, given that such systems survived for millenia, the answer is: Yes, such a society could function.

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