"I believe I'm up against a tremendous amount of bureaucratic intransigence," he said.

Meanwhile, economic development officials and civic leaders were growing impatient with what they saw as bureaucratic intransigence impeding the conversion of an antiquated structure into an urban dynamo.

But while such bureaucratic intransigence is not unfamiliar, the dispute suggests that the Government is sometimes ill-prepared to contend with the new phenomenon of international terrorism that strikes in the United States.

The board has now been replaced by state trustees, who are facing a long, gritty trench war against the effects of years of patronage hiring, bad contract negotiations and bureaucratic intransigence.

For the last 40 years, he says, the intelligence community "has remained essentially unchanged," unwilling because of bureaucratic intransigence and proprietary turf wars to make the structural reforms needed to keep it relevant and effective.

Though labor is cheaper in a country like China, the main explanations for the high costs in the United States are bureaucratic intransigence and antiquated rocket designs.

And rural unrest, labor strife and bureaucratic intransigence combine to hinder investment, both foreign and domestic.

And Jerome G. Miller, a court-appointed receiver given authority over the child welfare system here in Washington, said he had been frustrated at every turn by the "bureaucratic intransigence" of city employees.

But this is not a story of bureaucratic intransigence.

Other decisions, like allowing cellular telephones - which are already ringing in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - have foundered on the shoals of corruption, political favoritism and bureaucratic intransigence.