as with many man-made constructs, we inadvertently introduced discontinuities into an otherwise continuous function: artificial governing units (city, county, s

as with many man-made constructs, we inadvertently introduced discontinuities into an otherwise continuous function: artificial governing units (city, county, state, country) when governance ranges continuously from the individual to the world. this is a self-inflicted problem of trying to wedge the ‘right’ level of government for each and every governance issue. rather than the federalism/anti-federalism dichotomy, we should be thinking about how to create a more continuous governance structure matched to the continuous scope of governance issues. for instance, the state largely delegates zoning and housing starts to cities, but that’s turned into a regional concern as cities try to offload housing onto nearby cities to preserve existing stock and dedicate the rest to commercial property. so then, the right place to institute zoning/housing is not at the city level, or even the county level, but at the regional level. however, we don’t have a regional governance structure, so it gets wedged into existing city/county frameworks.