Capitalism is an economic system and a form of society, in which resources and enterprises are controlled by private power, as opposed to control by a state or by the public as a whole. In a capitalist system, private control of these productive enterprises is protected by the rule of law. A capitalist political system protectsFact: date=November 2008 the exchange and distribution of capital between legal or private persons, which are driven by competition and profit-maximization, and where investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods, commodities and services are predominantly determined through the operation of a market economy in which anyone can participate in supply and demand and form contracts with anyone else, rather than by central economic planning. Human labor power is for sale in the market as one of the many commodities. In capitalist systems, goods and services, including those regarding the most basic necessities of life, are produced for profitable exchange.Wood 2002, p. 2 Capitalism is originally defined as a mode of production, where it is characterized by predominantly private ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange in a mainly market economy. According to Marxist analysis, a core requirement of a capitalist society, is that a large portion of the population, must not possess sources of self-sustainment that would allow them to be independent, and must instead be compelled, in order to survive, to sell their labor for a living wage. Capitalism is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and businesses to trade, incorporate, and employ workers, in goods, services (including finance), labor and land.Bacher (2007) p. 2; De George (1986) pp.104, 111; Lash (2000) p.36 In modern "capitalist states", legislative action is confined to defining and enforcing the basic rules of the market though the state may provide a few basic public goods and infrastructure.

Capitalist economic practices became institutionalized in England between the 16th and 19th centuries, although some features of capitalist organization existed in the ancient world, and early forms of merchant capitalism flourished during the Middle Ages. Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism. From Britain it gradually spread throughout Europe, across political and cultural frontiers. In the 19th and 20th centuries, capitalism provided the main, but not exclusive, means of industrialization throughout much of the world.

Some have argued that the concept of capitalism has limited analytic value, given the great variety of historical cases over which it is applied, varying in time, geography, politics and culture. Because all large economies today have a mixture of private and public ownership and control, and some feel that the term "mixed economies" more precisely describes most contemporary economies. Some economists have specified a variety of different types of capitalism, depending on specifics of concentration of economic power and wealth, and methods of capital accumulation. The "capitalist mixed economy" is the main capitalistic system, where the state intervenes in market activity and provides some services. Other systems include laissez-faire, where the state plays a minimal role and anarcho-capitalism where the market and private enterprise are completely free from the state which is nonexistent. During the last century capitalism has been contrasted with centrally planned economies, such as Marxian economies.