But culling the herd is slow and difficult, partly because state franchise laws protect the country's 21, 640 car dealers (who exert much political power in state legislatures).

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The problem is the Indonesian army, an army that has become a state within a state, with enormous privileges, political power and economic power.

CNN: It's the Army, Stupid

The key to change lies to some extent in the regulatory power of the state but also in the choices, political and individual, we make.

NPR: Rabid Reader: 'Fat Land' and U.S. Supersizing

The addiction of the big two matters: given their political power, the commission has an uphill struggle overturning their state aids.

ECONOMIST: State aid

That is partly the healthy consequence of liberal economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s: the previous policies of state-led import-substitution tended to concentrate economic activity close to the centres of political power.

ECONOMIST: Productivity in Latin America

Like his San Franciscan counterparts, Hellman was able to parlay his financial power into political influence, making him a major behind-the-scenes player in state politics.

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