Thus, conventional wisdom has to a large extent become the critique against hierarchies, but dismissing formal hierarchies as systems of governance is unfortunate, for several reasons. First of all, much of the alleged development towards ‘horizontalization’ of institutions and organizations – and indeed of political life more generally – has been a spontaneous and organic development which has yet to be confirmed by changes in legal and constitutional frameworks. The discrepancy between these frameworks and actual political and institutional behavior cannot be sustained over an extended period of time.