The new millennium finds us in only the early stages of the information revolution. As in the 19th and early 20th centuries, public responses to technology are failing to keep pace with private ones. Some aspects of that lag are fortuitous, but some are not. Information technology has the capacity to make such choice possible, but it will not happen automatically.
Greater decentralisation is likely.
And in the American federal system, public opinion polls show that local and state governments enjoy somewhat higher levels of public trust than the federal government does. In principle, devolution and subsidiarity seem to enhance democratic governance. However, as James Madison pointed out two centuries ago, local communities with dominant factions are more likely to suffer from a tyranny of the majority. In American history, for example, central government interventions in the states were essential for the democratic enfranchisement of African-American citizens. Moreover, as some corporations become more mobile across state and national jurisdictions, local government tax bases erode and burdens are shifted onto the shoulders of those who are relatively immobile, often those who are poor.