Similar distance issues as the US.  Far less "government is EEEVIL" attitude.  Most public employees in small country towns (like police, teachers, social welfare, hospital, etc) are employed by state government, as opposed to local government (which is I understand the case in the US), so there is much greater sense of being plugged into a well-resourced organisation with more even standards of quality.  "Corrupt local cops/town council" trope doesn't really work when a large proportion of public servants work in isolated areas for only a few years before being transferred (especially if going into leadership positions).

At least, that was my experience when I worked in a teeny-tiny town in the Outback (Brewarrina) for 12 months.  And my Dad was a district relieving teacher employed by Education Queensland, so we saw our fair share of single-teacher schools across rural Queensland too.

Can't comment of "distant empires" in American history.

Roman Empire took about 4 weeks to travel from the Metropole to the periphery.  British Empire, during the mid-1800's, took from 10-12 weeks to get from London to Sydney (and longer yet to get to outlying areas.  By definition, there would have been a fair amount of local autonomy regardless of the legality of things.

French law was meant to set the standard in Saint-Domingue in the late 1700's.  However, it was not unknown for the local Governor to not _publish_ changes in French law ...