Little wonder many reckon California's Republicans are doomed to permanent irrelevance outside their inland fiefs.
Century is a loose confederation of fiefs, each with its own financial system and pay structure.
Those with cacique leanings who are trying to maintain their own fiefs will be especially recalcitrant.
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In Europe much more than in America, chairmen see their banks as personal fiefs.
Mr Varshalomidze bears little resemblance to the grizzly strongmen who have usually run mini-fiefs in the Caucasus.
One difference this time is GM's plan to break down the fiefs in its divisions around the world.
If the new mayor has real power, old Labour politicians will see him as a Blairite threat to their fiefs.
Mr Kawamura reckons the movement will come to resemble the alliance of fiefs in western Japan that helped topple the shogunate in the 1860s.
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That change ended the autonomy wielded by ministerial fiefs that were free to collect their own revenues and redistribute the funds as they saw fit.
Those tempted by the prospect of a job there may now prefer to remain in their fiefs, where they can be protected by their own men.
Labour council leaders used to running their fiefs without much opposition may balk at proportional representation which is strongly favoured by folk such as Mr Midgley.
In coming months he will rip up the EDS organization and try to eradicate fiefs that serve single industries, often with their own redundant accounting, legal and technical resources.
But Mr Speight's uprising was also a revolt against Fiji's paramount chiefs, who have continued to dominate the country's government despite the move away from their former rural fiefs.
Mr Rossel and his fellow supergovernors are a rising class, but the new arrangement that gives them increasing clout in the centre is not backed by unfettered power over their fiefs at home.
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To negotiate a peace with Mr Nuri, Mr Rakhmonov has had to take into account the views of Russia, his anti-Islamist parliament and half a dozen warlords with their own fiefs and their own ambitions.
But Mr Wahid is the leader of a minority party presiding over a loose coalition, whose colleagues can run their ministries as their own fiefs and yet blame him for the slow pace of reform.
Many treat their faculties as personal fiefs.
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