" The wish of the population was to be quit of the royal intendants and to administer itself by localities. The Constituent Assembly gave it a parent satisfaction by entrusting all departments of government to elected local assemblies. But simultaneously, it destroyed just those historical units which had the ability and the will to govern themselves. The geometrical intelligence of Sieyes conceived the idea of cutting up the country into twenty-four equal rectangles, themselves divided into nine equal communes, which, by the same infantile geometry, spawned nine cantons each. Though this crazy plan was not followed through, it remained at the ideal of the creators of the “departements.” It was safe enough after that to give these artificial creations an autonomous existence! As though there were danger of such as they feeling the breath of life under as though they were danger of such as a feeling the breath of a life on their own! "

― Bertrand De Jouvenel , On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth