Centralizing budget authority neutralized regional rivals by making them compete for funds

Evidence

Moses had to know that what he was saying was false. He knew that since regional commissions had to submit their budget requests to the Parks Council, the council, not the commissions, would decide how much money went to each region. The council, not an individual commission, would decide over-all park policies which would affect each commission’s parks. And since the commissions would be rivals for funds, there was little danger of them banding together against the man who ran the council. That man would be in complete charge of all the state parks. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 782

Categorization

• XREF: A concrete instance of divide-and-conquer through resource competition; parallels the law-merchant material on how rivalrous monitoring groups fail to unite. — connects to: Co-opting local elites into state offices neutralizes potential regional opposition leadership. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 515; Regulators are neutralized by budget cuts and concealment rather than direct repeal — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1528; The Centre faction consolidated control by absorbing rivals over several years

Broader Connections

• Co-opting local elites into state offices neutralizes potential regional opposition leadership. #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 515
• The Centre faction consolidated control by absorbing rivals over several years #exemplifies (0.75)
• Regulators are neutralized by budget cuts and concealment rather than direct repeal #exemplifies (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1528