2. Corporate Government
Here in the states it has been ruled that corporations are people with unalienable rights, money is free speech, and bankers who launder money to potential enemies, and drug cartels cannot be held accountable. We the people must be responsible for our behavior AND theirs. While sequestration sets in, and cuts are made to social programs and the like, the military industrial complex (congress in this instance) pushes tanks on our army that military brass THEMSELVES say they don't need. CNN writes: "If the U.S. pauses tank production and refurbishment it will hurt the nation's industrial economy, lawmakers say." While suggestions are made by our President to gradually cut Social Security to lower the deficit, we're consistently made to leave enough leg room in the budget for saber rattling. America's defense from terror or foreign governments is of the utmost importance, maybe not so much; starvation or exposure to the elements. Lastly, our democratic institution failed recently to pass a gun control bill that an estimated 90% of our countrymen, and the majority of the Senate favored. It would appear the Hill has been hijacked by special interest groups. If: in the world of Final Fantasy VII, it sounds suspiciously like a corporation runs everything, that's because it does. See, while many of the real world examples I listed above are part of a complex system whose well has been gradually poisoned, this is a point where FF7 is quite a bit simpler than reality. Shinra, built the biggest weapons, when it discovered the world's energy source they exploited it, fought for it, and provided the world's people with it. Who now depend on it. Shinra continues to harvest it, and build more powerful weapons out of it. The strength of their military, combined with their monopoly of energy makes them the natural lawmakers. There's no one in place to take them to task. It's just a corporate government, and they don't pretend to be anything but. They are the military industrial, oil, manufacturing, and governmental complexes all rolled into one. And decisions are made on profit, and profit alone. The interests of the people be damned. I guess sometimes a lack of subtlety is the best way to make your point.