It's also interesting to notice that Tropico can be thought of as kind of an exact opposite of Railroad Tycoon 2:
RRT2: Complete control over your people (trains) but almost no control over buildings or the way cities develop (just influence);
Tropico: Complete control over buildings and how cities develop but almost no control over your people (just influence).
I thought that was pretty neat considering that the layout, interface, engine (even the font) is almost the same.
That strikes me as a very astute observation.