Universal provision as a right necessarily implies centralized state administration

Evidence

But however slowly state control of education developed in Britain, from a modern perspective state control of the type so vehemently opposed by Mill was but one, apparently inevitable, part of the development of industrial economies. … What gave effect to such efforts and rendered their execution a responsibility increasingly of central, rather than local, government, was a function of taxation and representation. Universal provision as a right generally meant centralized administration since there was a clear limit to local taxation such as the poor rate, and universal provision implied the standardized services that only central control could assure. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 387

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A quietly powerful structural argument: that the claim of universal entitlement ineluctably drives administrative centralization, because local taxation capacity is bounded and standardization requires central control. This is the kind of causal mechanism worth sitting with.
• XREF: Connects to debates about federalism vs centralization in public goods provision, and to Hayek’s skepticism of centralized planning as distinct from his support for universal provision. — connects to: Liberal autonomy is class-stratified and state-regulated rather than universal; States can owe obligations to the poor without granting them corresponding rights — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 414; Neoliberal policy requires means-tested minimalism and bans universal provision — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 208 (+2 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 387

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal policy requires means-tested minimalism and bans universal provision #qualifies (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 208
• Autonomy as a secular-liberal ideal is class-differentiated and state-regulated #contradicts (0.77)
• Liberal autonomy is class-stratified and state-regulated rather than universal #contradicts (0.75)
• States can owe obligations to the poor without granting them corresponding rights #corroborates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 414
• Principality and republic are not opposed but hypostatize authority and universality #qualifies (0.72)