Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

186 I Ramnath
outside the state, which only later incorporated or superimposl:d
itself on them." In fact, pragmatically speaking,
in thl: absencl: of any means of fa st long-distance communication
or travel by which to administer a far-Rung I:mpire,
the smartest thing was to take advantage of existing
institutions.'" Such consolidation was only possible
because it did not cherish the ambition of setting
up a centralized government consciously legislating
fo r and controlling the life of every part of that vast
whole, but aimed only at an elastic system of fe deralism
or confederation in which were incorporated,
along with the central government at the metropolis,
as parts of the same system, the indigenous local
administrations. The essence of this imperial system
was thus a recognition oflocal autonomy at the
expense of the authority of the central government,
which was physically unfit to assert itself except by
its enforced affiliation to the pre-existing system of
local government.37
The practical interest of this study lay in its applicability
to current questions of administration and administrative
reform. Of two rival schools of thought,
[one 1 seeks to introduce self-government "from
above" and the other "from below." ...[Ilt may,
perhaps, be pertinent to point out that any form of
provincial or central government which is organized
merely "from above;' however mechanically