Monopolies are not always to be feared. If someone is providing the best services at the best prices and no one can do better, what is there to complain about. Its only an issue if they are preventing others from competing, or you are forced to by their garbage product because no one else provides it. The best way to do that is through state power, regulations etc. In order for a monopoly to sustain itself in a free market they have to out compete everyone else with the value and efficacy of their product. With a state, all they need do is pass a law that makes it difficult of terribly expensive for competition to comply with all the red tape.
There might have been a day where this was true, when people were divided and businesses small, but with the megacorps today I no longer believe that. If governments get corrupted then what mechanic would prevent any monopoly from being corrupted? I fail to see the logic in that. Take a look at some of the tactics employed in the electronics industry that have nothing to do with exploiting government nor with outcompeting. Look at some of the tactics used by Microsoft, Intel and NVIDIA (among others) who can spend more time, money and manpower on destroying and sabotaging their potential competitors than those competitors can ever hope to spend on marketing or simply getting off the ground. Or in the financial field with shit like leveraged buyouts and naked-shortselling that have nothing to do with proper competing or doing business.
While I do admit governments are terrible solutions, I don't see how giving control to megacorps run by sociopaths would be any better even though that particular strand of human tends to flourish in management. Best dystopian reference that comes to mind is the one in the movie Bladerunner, where megacorps run the world and slavery is big business.
To answer the question about what could be worse than giving a bureaucratic inefficient government power, my answer would be: to give power to an efficient (sociopath) entity. I share the repulsion about corrupt government, but I hope that people don't lose sight of who or what is actually doing the corrupting. For example how many weapon-factories are actually owned, run and operated by the US-government itself? As far as I can tell, the weapons trade and their marketing (as in creating armed conflicts and fear mongering) is not affected all that much by any government in any form other than being just another tool. Sad thing is that most people can't look past the sock-puppets and fail to realize the powerful hands stuffed up their backsides controlling their mouths. I don't think it's just the sockpuppet that's the problem, it might even be the lesser one of the many evils.
Then again, my viewpoints might be a little skewed, because I see the majority of humankind as illustrated in "Lord of the Flies". Before I went to university and later joined the army I had a more idealistic worldview, but those two environments forced me to reconsider. I'm no longer confident about the basic nature of man and it deeply regrets me to say that I've seen situations (people) where force seems to be necessary last resort.
Although I also admit that the Dutch army is little different from what I've seen and heard from armies like for example the US, Israel and Great-Britain. The Dutch army tends to follow the principle of using force only as the last resort and only proportional to the situation. Where the armies of the nations I've mentioned before have this mantra about how it's easier to scale down violence than it is to scale up, apparently without even considering it's not a principle that fits all situations. During my officer training it was often repeated that the soldiers in an army reflect a cross-section of society in their country and I wonder if that is true about the notions about using force as well. I did notice when talking to US-residents when talking about their guns that they often talk about the need to protect themselves and needing force multipliers and such.
Sorry went a little astray there, but the point I was trying to get to was that not all perceived use of force and oppression originates from "governments" per se. Government might in fact truly reflect society and that it might be the average human perception that needs to change.