What you're seeing is a gradual transition from the state to the corporation of all its functions. One of the oldest ideas in political theory is that a state is defined by the territory it owns - so if it gives territory over to Special Economic Zones, what does that say about democracy?

Investigative journalist Matt Kennard reports on the realities of life, labor and dissent in a special economic zone (SEZ) - areas around the globe designed to attract multinational corporate investment by bypassing a country's local democratic control and labor laws - and explains how the concentrated capitalism of SEZs, for decades a tool of the West in developing nations, is coming back to our own weakening economies (and democracies.)

Matt is co-author of the investigation Inside the Corporate Utopias Where Capitalism Rules and Labor Laws Don’t Apply for In These Times.