New York City's unelected 'master builder' who shaped the physical landscape of New York for four decades — documented in Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Power Broker as the archetypal study of unaccountable bureaucratic power.
The Power Broker thesis: Moses accumulated power by making himself indispensable across multiple government roles simultaneously (Parks Commissioner, Triborough Bridge Authority, Housing Authority, etc.) — and used each role's resources to entrench the others. His physical legacy: 658 playgrounds, 13 bridges, 416 miles of parkways, Lincoln Center, Jones Beach — reshaping New York in ways that privileged the automobile and suburbanized the city. His social legacy: deliberately designed bridges too low for buses (keeping Black beachgoers from Jones Beach), cleared neighborhoods for highways, destroyed the Bronx. The Power Broker is the canonical text on unaccountable bureaucratic power.
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