The fights have been particularly bare-knuckled when the comptrollers have used their power to block major initiatives.

There have been many other cases of national governments slowing or even blocking European initiatives.

Bureaucrats also tend to use crises to block initiatives for change.

But in the last election, Democrats won enough votes to block Republican initiatives but not enough votes to pass their own.

Liberal Supervisors saw this as an opportunity to end the 6-5 split on the Board that blocked progressive initiatives they wanted to introduce.

But labor leaders say they are confident that they have enough Republican allies in Congress to block major anti-union initiatives.

Congress voted last year to block such initiatives by the Fed until it had a chance to examine the underlying policy issue.

The British initially attempted to block such initiatives.

They try to block Democratic initiatives, but they don't offer the country any new ways to think about the G.O.P.

New frontiers require, among other things, new money, but the President's astounding budget deficit blocks new initiatives.