What happens when key institutions of the state become ‘captured’ by corporate and business interests and how exactly does this occur? That is the principal question this research seeks to answer. This paper puts forth a theory of political capture and how political capture happens from my theory on ‘the increasing returns to power’. There are four forms of power that corporations (both licit and illicit) employ (instrumental, discursive, structural, and illicit) and each form of power increases the returns to one another which ultimately leads to political capture of key state institutions. This has grave implications for the rule of law, democracy, governance, and political representation. Ultimately, the theory I propose as to how political capture works can be extended across time and space – having the ability to be applied to a wide variety of contexts.