Centralization

The partisans of centralization ... are wont to maintain that the
Government directs the affairs of each locality better than the
citizens could do it for themselves .... But I deny that such is the
case when the people is as enlightened, as awake to its interests,
and as accustomed to reflect on them, as the Americans are.

-- Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America.

How far we have fallen.