Companies or Governments?

Let me start off with this, there will be no links today because it's Sunday and I'm being lazy. But I still want to bring up an interesting thought.

In the future what will be more important companies or governments? There are hundreds of countries on this planet all with their own laws and regulations and hundreds of companies that operate worldwide. These companies and governments don't always play well together. China has laws restricting access to the Internet, Japan has strong trade tariffs, OPEC attempts to control oil prices and many other examples of government restrictions and policy setting exist. Companies need to be flexible and adapt to where they operate. I think it is possible that the line between government and company will become blurred. Where companies set regulations and policies themselves or cooperatively with competitors. This happens today but many governments have final say over accepting industry standards or not.

Certain companies may become so important that a government would be unable to set policies against those companies due to the importance of the services and/or goods provided. This would allow a company to set its' own terms. A scary thought, no? Well what if it turns out to be not so bad. As I said some governments are very restrictive to their citizens. And a government is only as good as the people running it, which also holds true for companies. Companies can be very philanthropic, with profit and charity coexisting. These companies could be influential in moving human rights around the world forward.

I find this topic very interesting. Do you think companies will overtake governments in terms of importance and power? If so how will this affect the lives of people? Would companies be better at driving innovation and prosperity?