It was also seen as an unmistakable message that Mexico's new President intends to curb the power that unions have traditionally wielded, sometimes by violent means, in the economy and within the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

With its 46 stores, Saks has traditionally wielded one of the largest order-writing pencils in the fashion business.

By its ability to award lucrative appointments, the court has traditionally wielded enormous influence and power.

And given the power that business has traditionally wielded in Albany, especially in the Republican-controlled State Senate, it augurs a fierce fight over the tax cut next year.

Through their power to assign committee chairmanships and dispense tens of millions of dollars in spending, leaders have traditionally wielded iron-fisted influence over their members.

But New York has a powerful teachers' union, vocal community groups and other constituencies that have traditionally wielded influence over the school system.

But even before Mr. Salinas took office last month, he had made it clear that he intended to reduce the power the unions have traditionally wielded both in the economic realm and within the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Speakers have traditionally wielded nearly unquestioned authority over the Assembly, with the ability to pass or block legislation almost at will, and none have been overthrown by their own party in more than 60 years.

Work units and local agencies have traditionally wielded extraordinary power over ordinary Chinese people - handing out apartments, arranging day care, deciding which hospital a worker must use - and that legacy remains.