The book Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life by Robert B. Reich, is a great description of how capitalism has come to dominate democracy in our government.
When it comes to solutions, I think the book falls short. Follow the link above to see the details.
I think I have come up with a practical step that is better than any that Reich proposes in his book. You’ll also find that at the link.
Allan Sloan, Sr. Editor At Large, Fortune seems to agree with me. See his commentary on Nightly Business Report
Lurker Richard H. provided the following great references on Sovereign Wealth Funds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_funds
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2007/09/straight.htm
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/20/business/wealth.php
The link to Robert Reich’s blog does not always seem to work. The following is the message that I had posted there:
One solution to controlling Supercapitalism that you did not mention in your book is allowing the Social Security Trust fund to invest in stocks as described by Franco Modigliani and Arun Muralidhar.
This along with the sovereign wealth funds of other countries might be the countervailing force that we need to offset the forces of supercapitalism.
I recognize that a retirement investment trust fund ought not mix politics with its fiduciary responsibility to maximize the returns for its owners. Given that, this idea needs to be worked on a lot more than I have hinted at here. Still, I think it has some grand possibilities.