Mr Cakici (now in a French jail, resisting extradition) is said to have played a decisive role in the bidding for a bank sold by Mr Yilmaz's government to a scandal-tainted businessman.

ECONOMIST: Turkey

Senior rebel commanders are said to have played a decisive role in the drawing-up of Hadep's list of candidates.

ECONOMIST: Turkey��s Kurds

In Kansas, where Triad Management was especially active, the funds may have played a decisive role in four of six federal races.

NEWYORKER: Covert Operations

Anek Laothamatas, the former leader of the Mahachon party in Thailand, argues that businessmen have played a decisive role in his country since the 1980s.

ECONOMIST: Why do professional paths to the top vary so much?

They have played a decisive role in dozens of environmental victories, from the phasing out of lead in petrol in the 1970s to stopping the navy in 2003 from using a sonar system that would have deafened or even killed whales.

ECONOMIST: The environmental movement

But when Suharto announced a budget in January that flouted earlier pledges to the IMF, telephone calls from his ASEAN colleagues as well as U.S. President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro are thought to have played a decisive role in persuading him to sign a revised agreement to make tough reforms.

CNN: Indonesia's Agony

And Governor Jeb Bush would have to sign the bill, playing a decisive role in the election despite his pledge to stay out.

CNN: The Florida Gambit