Governance as hierarchies
Governance conducted by and through vertically integrated state structures is an idealized model of democratic government and the public bureaucracy. In the bureaucratic sphere, the Weberian model of the public service characterized most of the advanced western democracies for more than a century if not longer. This was essentially governance by law; instead of bridging the public- private border, this type of governance strictly upheld that distinction. The state – conceives of as the epitome of the collective interest – was thus distinctly separated from rest of society but governed society by imposition of law and other forms regulation. Other institutions of the state were also entangled in a hierarchical system of command and control. Subnational government enjoyed some degree of autonomy but the state never surrendered its legal authority over these institutions which, while ‘autonomous’, remained creatures of the state. Thus, hierarchy characterized both the state’, exchange with society as well as its internal organization and modus operandi.