CHAPTER TWO

THE ROOTS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNANCE, GOVERNMENT, AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The Envelopment of Local Communities in Upper-Local Polities over Time

Human life, and thus history, is about association. Theories about rent-seeking and self-maximizing individuals and institutional theories concerning imagined communities do not capture human behavior and desires entirely. Much economic theory assumes individuals to be selfish, but that breaks down in the face of the fact that all human beings associate with some people. In Fukuyama's words “there was never a period in human evolution when human beings existed as isolated individuals” (2011, 30; emphasis in original). Historical and anthropological theories assume that individuals are ...

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