A glimpse into the conservative mind.
Now apply what you just wrote to see our point of view. Authority tends to be abused by whoever wields it. This applies to individuals, corporations, and/or government. Think of it as a sort of carbon footprint. The higher up the chain of command, the larger the foot/boot and the more people it comes down on.
Corporations can and do abuse people, but those abuses are dwarfed by the potential footprint of government. Corporate abuse is also far easier to counteract than government abuse. Just look at the hit BP has taken over the past couple of months.
Since some government is a necessary evil, we prefer it to be as local as possible and to get weaker the higher up the chain it goes.