Leaders of authoritarian governments have embraced the capitalist system not only in order to maximise economic performance in their countries but also with the aim of promoting their political goals and furthering their political dominance. This practice gave rise to the phenomenon of state capitalism. In a period of severe crisis for the global capitalist system, state capitalism challenges free-market capitalism conceptually and practically: it offers an attractive alternative to leaders of emerging economies and it distorts capitalism's efficiency, thus undermining future recovery. Free-market states need to counter this double challenge by answering the call of smart regulation while practicing the tenets of free trade and open markets that they preach.
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Ian Bremmer (2010) studied this question.