government scale

"In a small town, government proceeds tolerably well. There is not much distance between governors and the governed. The latter know where the former live... and how they live... and how little difference there is between them. If the governors overreach, they are likely to find themselves beaten in the next election... or in the middle of the street.  But as the scale increases... as the distance between the governed and the governors increases... and as the institutional setting grows and ages... government becomes a bigger deal. More formal. More powerful. It can begin governing more grandly...."
-- Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning (11/21/12)