A general model for the organization of transcription initiation. The underlying propensity for initiation of transcription by the RNA polymerase II enzyme is governed solely by local DNA sequence. The role of processes working distally (such as enhancers) or at larger scales is to stabilize the initiation process or regulate DNA accessibility. The global features can be viewed as a way to scale the underlying TSS selection distribution; these features can change due to context, while the local DNA code cannot. “Context” encompasses both distal DNA elements/chromatin state events and the state of the cell (e.g., which transcription factors are present). The total expression output from a TSS cluster is a product of the local and global factors.