In politics

Entrepreneurship involves people taking a risk in order to create new ventures. Traditionally entrepreneurs have been associated with the world of business, however the term is used in the political arena also. For example Choi Taewook (2004) writes: A political entrepreneur refers to a political player who seeks to gain certain political and social benefits in return for providing the common goods that can be shared by an unorganized general public. These common goods that political entrepreneurs attempt to provide to the populace generally include foreign- and domestic-related public policy, while the benefits they hope to gain involve voter support, public recognition, and personal popularity. Hence the term Political entrepreneur can refer to someone who founds a new political project or group, or a politician who seeks to further a new and ambitious policy to further his political career. Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified opportunities. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In business

However the term is also used in a very different way by those that wish to contrast what they see as a pure "market entrepreneur" with someone that uses the political system to further a commercial venture or their own career. On this definition a political entrepreneur is a business entrepreneur who seeks to gain profit through subsidies, protectionism, government contracts, or other such favorable arrangements with government(s) through political influence (also known as corporate welfare). Ed Younkins (2000) writes Political entrepreneurs seek and receive help from the state and, therefore, are not true entrepreneurs. In practice, the division between the market entrepreneur and the political entrepreneur can be hazy. Many business entrepreneurs share both characteristics in varying degrees. The term appears to have been coined by Burton W. Folsom Jr. in his book, The Myth of the Robber Barons. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A subsidy is generally a monetary grant given by government in support of an activity regarded as being in the public interest. ... Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between nations, through methods such as high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, a variety of restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and anti-dumping laws in an attempt to protect domestic industries in a particular nation from foreign take-over... Corporate welfare is a pejorative term, first coined by Ralph Nader in 1956, describing a governments bestowal of grants and/or tax breaks on corporations or other special favorable treatment from the government. ... ...

See also

Social entrepreneur, Politician, Crony capitalism, Corporate welfare The political activism of American business as a class has surged and ebbed at various historical moments. Variations in both business and countervailing political mobilization should be approached as problems of collective interpretation and action. To explain the historical patterns of class-wide business activism, we need to look at the dynamics of partisan regimes in American politics. Partisan leaders, not businesses or other policy-seekers themselves, have the strongest incentives to absorb the transaction costs associated with either broad-scale business or countervailing collective action. When partisan entrepreneurs see an opportunity to alter the distribution of power at the national level, they engage in a discursive exercise to remold business or oppositional interests and undertake the mobilization of these interests. Sage Publications An analytical framework for dealing with political entrepreneurship and reform is proposed which is based on some new combinations of Schumpeterian political economy, an extended version of Tullock's model of democracy as franchise-bidding for natural monopoly and some basic elements of New Institutional Economics. It is shown that problems of insufficient award criteria and incomplete contracts which may arise in economic bidding schemes, also - and even more so - characterise political competition. At the same time, these conditions create leeway for Schumpeterian political entrepreneurship. The same is true for various barriers to entry in politics. These barriers affect a trade-off between political stability and political contestability which will be discussed with special emphasis on incentives and opportunities for political entrepreneurship in the sense of risking long-term investments in basic political reforms. This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data A social entrepreneur is someone who develops social innovation through entrepreneurial solutions. ... A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ... Crony capitalism or crapitalism is a pejorative term describing a capitalist economy in which success in business depends on an extremely close relationship between the businessman and the state institutions of politics and government, rather than by the espoused equitable concepts of the free market, open competition, and economic liberalism. ... Corporate welfare is a pejorative term, first coined by Ralph Nader in 1956, describing a governments bestowal of grants and/or tax breaks on corporations or other special favorable treatment from the government. ...

External links

• Choi Taewook (2004) "Promoting a Northeast Asia Economic Integration Policy", Korea Focus, May-April, 2004, vol 12, no 2.
• Younkins, E. (2000) "Entrepreneurship Properly Understood", Le Quebecois Libre, July 8, 2000, No. 64.

Brandon Gassaway