ABSTRACT
This chapter continues the discussion of the linkage of micro parameters of governance (security, welfare and identity; Figure 1.2) with macro institutions and policies (Figure 1.5). It draws on semi-structured interviews with the regional elites regarding their mediating role between the state and the people, the views that administrators have of politicians and, likewise, the way political leaders see their counterparts within the administration. The knowledge of elite mediation that we get from these qualitative variables is complemented by the level of electoral participation and the cohesion or fragmentation of the party system in the six regional states. The need for a detailed knowledge of the ensemble of factors that affect mediation and governance in everyday life is salient in the contemporary context, for it helps us reconsider the argument that blames the failure of orderly rule in the domestic arena necessarily on external enemies.1
