In contemporary California, we should be equally concerned about the rising political power of what one might term an "environmental-corporate complex," whose game works something like this:

A corporation acquires land, proposes development and incurs opposition from environmentalists. There are regulatory hearings, perhaps lawsuits, and lots of publicity. Politicians then promise to "save" the land with public money. Quite often, the purchase price is well above what the corporation paid in the first place. And everyone insists that corporate campaign contributions and fees to well-placed lobbyists played no role.