In a series of public comments on the 2003-2004 elections, for instance, he unequivocally stated his opposition to rolling back the Western-style economic reforms and privatizations of the 1990s.

Any serious losses in December's elections would end United Russia's effective control, and potentially doom the remainder of Mr. Putin's package of Western-style reforms.

The dispute also underlined the fragility of Western-style economic reform in Russia.

Yet it needs to push them toward denuclearization and more Western-style reform, and even pay them for it.

But he has rejected Western-style political reforms, warning that they would lead China down a "blind alley".

For example, projections suggest that more than half the seats in the new parliament of the Czech republic will probably belong to right-wing parties strongly supportive of Western-style economic reform.

With that in mind, attention is firmly focused on Western-style economic reforms and the progress toward prosperity that the country has made in recent years.

THE ISSUES Both candidates have pledged Western-style economic reforms.

Even with the setbacks that Western-style reform has suffered for three years, China remains eager to learn what it must to advance its hobbling economy and integrate it more closely with the industrialized democracies.

Since the 18th century, various Chinese governments have been careful to prevent Western-style economic reform from bringing about similar government, intellectual or moral reforms.