I am not personally unfamiliar with the codes in my area, but from what you say I believe you know something about them. A politically-motivated code might be, and I'm just making this up, something that would require some form of union labor to accomplish a specific task, or someone "licensed" by the government. Other politically-motivated codes would be those intended to preserve a specific industry, whether or not that is the best way to get the job done.

Actually, building codes, even those with the best intentions, are generally far too specific, and have probably done more to stagnate building technology than just about anything else. Fuller's Dymaxion House among many other innovative designs ran smack into entrenched housing laws and floundered. Do you ever wonder why most houses are still stick-built the same way they were a hundred years ago?