Corporates (when united) and the government are roughly in parity regarding "soft" power. Sometimes one wins, sometimes the other does. The government does a lo

Corporates (when united) and the government are roughly in parity regarding "soft" power. Sometimes one wins, sometimes the other does. The government does a lot of sabre-rattling towards corporates who step out of line, but they often can't do much more. There is a real risk of dynamiting the economy if they start being too harsh, and the problem right now is that everyone is a bad actor in one way or another, so you can't just start aggressive enforcement across the board. When it comes to individual corporates or smaller groups of them, it can be productive to think of the government as its own collection of organizations with their own relative power levels, budgets, connections, etc. The DoD is the largest organization in the world, so it's got a lot of weight; when it steps in, people listen and obey. Dept of State is pretty big as well, especially considering its connections to other powerful entities. By contrast, smaller organizations like the EPA tend to get ignored, and the worst they can usually do the big guys is a slap on the wrist.