Reedy Creek Improvement District

I've studied Disney history quite a bit and this is a fascinating outlier in US politics. It is the only example of a fully privatized government operating on US land.

At the time that "The Florida Project" was proposed (now known as Walt Disney World), the surrounding areas were nothing more than useless swamps. Neither of the counties had money or infrastructure to support what Disney wanted to do, so the company proposed running its own government services like roads, power lines, and water management.

While innovative and quite amazing at the time, this arrangement seems completely unnecessary today when Disney is a huge corporation which can pay local governments and follow their laws, like every competitor has to do.

Pretty handy to own the governing body.