New Delhi, Oct. 15 -- When America's top business leaders gathered to meet with President Donald Trump last month, the optics revealed capitalism's shifting dynamics. That scene of corporate titans assembling before political power was mirrored in India last week, when Tata group executives made a similar pilgrimage to meet the country's two senior-most ministers.

The parallel images point to a troubling global trend: the boundary between government and private enterprise is thinning.

At its simplest level, the government's core responsibility in capitalism is to establish and enforce the rule of law, safeguard property rights, and maintain a stable environment where markets can function even as private enterprise, operating within that...