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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: uniform order be the result, without in any way compromising the
independence of the township? Nothing of the kind, however,
exists in America: there is nothing above the county-courts,
which have, as it were, only an incidental cognizance of the
offences they are meant to repress.]
The partisans of centralization in Europe are wont to
maintain that the Government directs the affairs of each locality
better than the citizens could do it for themselves; this may be
true when the central power is enlightened, and when the local
districts are ignorant; when it is as alert as they are slow;
when it is accustomed to act, and they to obey. Indeed, it is
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