Roume centralized federal control while formally casting departments as advisory.

Evidence

Each of these federal departments was supposed to have a corresponding bureau in the respective capitals of member colonies. The role of these inspectorates was not to overcentralize, but to supervise from above (haute direction), and to exercise overall control (controle permanent). 19 Departmental heads were regarded as inspectors in chief and technical advisers, whose opinions and recommendations Roume alone could transform into directives. To highlight the advisory nature of the different bureaus and inspectorates, Roume denied their heads the right to correspond directly with their counterparts in the colonies. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 161

Categorization

• XREF: Centralizing authority while framing it as technical-advisory mirrors how republican governance conceals political control inside administrative expertise—a pattern reminiscent of bureaucratic power structures in the reader’s work on institutions.