What I learned from The Power Broker
The Power Broker is Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Robert Moses (12/18/1888 - 7/29/1981). Between 1920 and 1960, without ever being elected, Robert Moses became the most powerful man in New York. This book tells the story of who he was and how he did it.
What I've Learned
1. Make Detailed Plans
During the Depression, Robert Moses was able to get a disproportionate amount of money from the federal government to fund his parks and parkways because he came to them detailed plans: blueprints, cost breakdowns, supporting research, etc. Furthermore, he had lots and lots of them. Few other developers in other cities could compete with the quality of Moses' plans for New York (city and state) and none the quantity. Even within New York City, desperate for help with its hospitals, schools, housing, police, firefighting, and public transit, here was Moses building parks and parkways.
2. Be the Middleman
Moses figured out that if he could get even conditional support from one party (say, New York State) he could use that to bully support from other parties (like, New York City). Caro calls this "Whipsawing".
3. Get started
Once a project is started, once the foundation is poured, it will be hard to stop and impossible to reverse. Moses and Caro call this "stake driving". Robert Moses uses this to thwart injunctions against his park developments because de facto overrules de jure once the concrete is set.
4. You can always get more money
Once someone has committed money to your cause, you can always get more out of them. Robert Moses's plans were so big that often, the only way of getting NY legislature or NYC's board of estimate to commit money to them was to lie about how much they cost. Once he had completed part of it though, he could go back to them for more because he had the chutzpah to tell them it was their fault they had been deceived! They should have done their own research (of course, back then, he had probably whipsawed them into believing that they should act now). Furthermore, if they wanted to see the project finished they would have to pony up more money. They would only look bad if they didn't finish it. This is called "wedge driving".
5. Share credit
Moses was very generous about sharing credit for his works. So many projects gave him all sorts of opportunities to have opening ceremonies and ribbon cutting events. These are great public relations for politicians and makes them look good.
6. Be a good host
Friendly relations complicate skeptical analysis. Robert Moses constantly curried favor of politicians and financiers and businessmen but also publishers, editors, and reporters. He used his inside access to his parks projects and their commercial connections to hold lavish parties to wine and dine the people he was manipulating.
7. Cultivate a reputation of altruism
For decades, Robert Moses, was seen as being "above politics". He was a parks commissioner, a public servant. During a land grab he went up against wealthy Long Island landowners, and he used their wealth and status against them gaining an uncritical popular support. Of course these were the only people on Long Island who had the means to fight him. Small farmers, less wealthy landowners simply had their lands condemned and seized.
8. Write your own laws
Robert Moses, without being elected to office became a de facto legislator because, he was familiar with the law and excelled at drafting bills. He drafted the bill that established and gave him power over the Long Island Parks Commission, and he wove into it extraordinary powers to seize lands for his park plans. He got a young senator legislator to bring it to the floor and because his bill was hardly read, much less thoroughly analyzed, it passed without anyone realizing what it truly did.
A lot of these tricks are still out there and have only been refined in the years since. I'm sure you can already think of some examples from current events.