Worryingly, he has a poor record of defying his party's baronies, especially the unions.

ECONOMIST: The presidential election

The French-speaking Socialist Party may be particularly incorrigible, since it consists of local baronies all but impervious to central control.

ECONOMIST: Belgium

The government's new cross-cutting units are enabling it to address issues, particularly those related to social deprivation, that had previously been largely ignored by Whitehall's departmental baronies.

ECONOMIST: Britain��s changing government | The

It is a charge that resonates beyond romantics who recall the post-war golden age of cabinet government when Whitehall was a collection of ministerial baronies, each run by a big beast and overseen by a prime minister who was merely primus inter pares.

ECONOMIST: Reform of the civil service