We call this "Fascism."
We don’t call it that most of the time, but that’s what it is.
China, Russia and Europe have various versions, as do most Latin American and other 3rd World countries.
In its milder versions it’s called crony capitalism, when the business side of the alliance dominates.
I’m really curious why the author of this piece thinks the answer is just to elect the “right” people. Doesn’t she realize most of them will quickly be corrupted by the system? The answer is to change the system, not hope for the election of those rare individuals who are above being corrupted. (Most of those people have other flaws that are often more dangerous.)