Capitalism doesn't require corporations. Corporations insulate capital from liability.
In the early 1800's in the US, you needed a act of the state legislature to form a corporation. This was difficult and came with other baggage (putting politicians on payroll, etc) so many more businesses were partnerships. Being a partner means that as you invest, you gain more equity AND more liability. It also means that governance becomes difficult as the partnership grows. As the industrial revolution brought about massive, more capital intensive businesses (railroads, steel, etc), the corporation become necessary to function.
If Hacker News was around in 1880, we'd be talking about corporate bureaucracy as a great innovation. It made sense.
I think what you're really seeing with Valve is a sort of modern partnership. I've seen similar sounding small businesses (farms, mostly) where running of the business is more consensus-driven or there is a "spontaneous" hierarchy that develops over time.
There's not really much of a connection between the ownership structure--corporation vs. partnership--and the management structure of a company. In Valve's case it is probably organized as a corporation, but it actually has only a few owners. It could easily be organized as partnership. Either way, what makes it special is that the employees (who are not owners) are allowed to self-organize. But that could happen under any ownership structure.
Well, if you define Capitalism as Capitalists hiring Labor, then yes, it does. A market economy could exist in ways organized through divisions other than Capital/Labor and as such the market does not need Capitalism to continue.
In the early 1800's in the US, you needed a act of the state legislature to form a corporation. This was difficult and came with other baggage (putting politicians on payroll, etc) so many more businesses were partnerships. Being a partner means that as you invest, you gain more equity AND more liability. It also means that governance becomes difficult as the partnership grows. As the industrial revolution brought about massive, more capital intensive businesses (railroads, steel, etc), the corporation become necessary to function.
If Hacker News was around in 1880, we'd be talking about corporate bureaucracy as a great innovation. It made sense.
I think what you're really seeing with Valve is a sort of modern partnership. I've seen similar sounding small businesses (farms, mostly) where running of the business is more consensus-driven or there is a "spontaneous" hierarchy that develops over time.