What's less well known is the existence of a new kind of power broker on Pennsylvania Avenue, backroom power players who confront these forces and who strive to vault over them and, indeed, sometimes even succeed in doing so in making Washington work.

NPR: Can Next President Deliver on Promises of 'Change'?

Their entrenched leaderships owe their continued power more to backroom deals and stamping on dissidents than to any persuasive philosophy.

ECONOMIST: Venezuela

Through these profiles in backroom power, we mean to show how a new network operates in Washington today, and by a new set of rules.

NPR: Can Next President Deliver on Promises of 'Change'?