Decentralisation (American: decentralization) is any of various means of more widely distributing decision-making to bring it closer to the point of service or action. It occurs in a great many contexts in engineering, management science, political science, political economy, sociology and economics — each of which could be said to study mass decision-making by groups, too large to consult with each other very directly. Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. ... Engineering applies scientific and technical knowledge to solve human problems. ... Management science, or MS, is the discipline of using mathematics, and other analytical methods, to help make better business decisions. ... Political science is a social science discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Economics (from the Greek οίκος [oikos], house, and νομος [nomos], rule, hence household management) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services. ...

Law and science can also be said to be highly decentralised human practices. There are serious studies of how causality and correlations of phenomenon can respectively be determined and agreed across an entire nation, or indeed across the entire human species spread across the planet. While such institutions as the International Criminal Court or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change seem highly centralized, in fact they rely so heavily on the underlying legal and scientific processes that they can be said to simply reflect, as opposed to impose, global opinion. Law (a loanword from Old Norse lagu), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Science For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... The philosophical concept of causality or causation refers to the set of all particular causal or cause-and-effect relations. ... In probability theory and statistics, correlation, also called correlation coefficient, is a numeric measure of the strength of linear relationship between two random variables. ... A phenomenon (plural: phenomena) is an observable event, especially something special (literally something that can be seen from the Greek word phainomenon = observable). ... The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, as defined by several international agreements, most prominently the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. ... IPCC is science authority for the UNFCCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess the risk of human-induced climate change. The Panel is open to all... Centralization is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group. ... Service of process is the term given to legal notice of a court or administrative bodys exercise of its jurisdiction over individuals who are the subject of proceedings or actions brought before such court, body or other tribunal. ... Scientific method as envisaged by one of its early exponents, Sir Isaac Newton, is fundamental to the investigation and acquisition of new knowledge based upon physical evidence. ...

A central theme in all kinds of decentralisation is the difference between a hierarchy, based on: For the various types of hierarchy, see hierarchy (disambiguation) A hierarchy (in Greek: Ιεραρχία, it is derived from ιερός-hieros, sacred, and άρχω-arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ...

• authority: two players in an unequal-power relationship; and
• an interface: a lateral relationship between two players of roughly equal power.

The more decentralized a system is, the more it relies on lateral relationships, and the less it can rely on command or force. In most branches of engineering and economics, decentralisation is narrowly defined as the study of markets and interfaces between parts of a system. This is most highly developed as general systems theory and neoclassical political economy. In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ... In general usage, an interface is the point, area, or surface along which two substances or other qualitatively different things meet; it is also used metaphorically for the juncture between items. ... Chichicastenango, Guatemala traditional market Market stall in internally displaced persons camp in Kitgum, northern Uganda Mercado dos Lavradores, Funchal (Madeira Islands) A market is a mechanism which allows people to trade, normally governed by the theory of supply and demand. ... Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field which studies relationships of systems as a whole. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ...

Karl Marx, in Das Kapital, observed that the historical progress of economies from feudalism to capitalism was a classic example of decentralisation. It relied correspondingly less on the authority of a "nobility", and more on flexible systems of control of capital — the markets themselves, which were relatively merciless in driving down the price of labour as one of many factors of production, or punishing poor investment strategy — English nobility could be impoverished by a single bad investment decision, which could not have happened under any feudal system. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an influential philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary organizer of the International Workingmens Association. ... Das Kapital (Capital) is a very large treatise of political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ... In common usage, the word capitalism means an economic system in which the means of production are primarily privately owned and operated for profit, with private investment of capital, and where production, distribution, and the prices of goods, services, and labor are affected by the forces of supply and demand... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds. ... Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is a measure of the work done by human beings and is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... Factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services in economics. ... An investment strategy is a set of guidlines, behaviors or procedures designed to maximize overall return for an individuals investment portfolio. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ...

Many, if not most, political theorists believe there are limits to decentralization as a strategy. They assert that any relaxation of direct control or authority introduces the possibility of dissent or division at critical moments, especially if what is being decentralised is decision-making among human beings. Friedrich Engels famously responded to Bakunin, refuting the argument of total decentralisation, or anarchism, by scoffing "how these people propose to run a factory, operate a railway or steer a ship without having in the last resort one deciding will, without single management, they of course do not tell us". A political theorist is someone who engages in political theory. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, as differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ... Dissent is the sentiment of non-agreement with the majority, or the leader, of a group to which the dissenter is supposed to belong or to obey. ... Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820–August 5, 1895) was a 19th-century German political philosopher. ... Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Trolo) (Russian — Михаил Александрович Бакунин, Michel Bakunin — on the grave in Bern), (May 30, 1814–June 13, 1876) was a well known Russian anarchist. ... Anarchism derives from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (ruler, chief, king)). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that rulers are unnecessary and should be abolished. ...

However, some anarchists have, in turn, responded to his argument, by explaining that they do support a (very limited) amount of centralization, in the form of freely elected and recallable delegates. More to the point from the majority of anarchist perspectives are the real-world successes of anarchist communities, which for the majority only ended when they were defeated by the overwhelming military might of the State or neighbouring States. All in all, we do not know what a truly decentralized society would look like over a long period of time since it has never been permitted to exist, however the Zapatistas of Mexico are proving to be quite resilient, having thus far maintained their autonomy since 1994, and continue to improve and develop their communities. Anarchism derives from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (ruler, chief, king)). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that rulers are unnecessary and should be abolished. ... This is a list of past and present anarchist communities. ... A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... The Flag of the EZLN. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. ... Autonomy is the condition of something that does not depend on anything else. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

In "On Authority", Engels also wrote of democratic workplaces that "particular questions arise in each room and at every moment concerning the mode of production, distribution of material, etc., which must be settled by decision of a delegate placed at the head of each branch of labour or, if possible, by a majority vote." In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. ...

Modern trade unions and management scientists tend to side strongly with Engels in this debate, and generally agree that decentralization is very closely related to standardisation and subordination, e.g. the standard commodity contracts traded on the commodity markets, in which disputes are resolved all according to a jurisdiction and common regulatory system, within the frame of a larger democratic electoral system which can restore any imbalances of power, and which generally retains the support of the population for its authority. A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... Management science, or MS, is the discipline of using mathematics, and other analytical methods, to help make better business decisions. ... The term Engels could refer to more than one thing: Friedrich Engels, German socialist Engels, Russia, formerly known as Pokrovsk This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Standardisation or standardization (sometimes abbreviated s13n), in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... Subordination is a state in which one person or group of people has rights or privileges which rank below those of another. ... A standard form contract (sometimes referred to as a contract of adhesion or boilerplate contract) is a contract between two parties that does not allow for negotiation, i. ... This article is in need of attention. ... In law, jurisdiction refers to the aspect of a any unique legal authority as being localized within boundaries. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...

Notable exceptions among trade unions are the Wobblies, and the strong anarcho-syndicalist movement of Spain. However, a strategy of decentralization is not always so obviously political, even if it relies implicitly on authority delegated via a political system. For example, engineering standards are a means by which decentralisation of supply inspection and testing can be achieved — a manufacturer adhering to the standard can participate in decentralised systems of bidding, e.g. in a parts market. A building standard, for instance, permits the building trades to train labour and building supply corporations to provide parts, which enables rapid construction of buildings at remote sites. Decentralization of training and inspection, through the standards themselves, and related schedules of standardized testing and random spot inspection, achieves a very high statistical reliability of service, i.e. automobiles which rarely stall, cars which rarely leak, and the like. The IWW Label A Wobbly membership card The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, having much in common with anarcho-syndicalist unions, but also many differences. ... Anarcho-syndicalist flag. ... Inspection in software engineering, refers to peer review of any work product by trained individuals who look for defects using a well defined process. ... Look up test in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Procurement is the acquisition of goods or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quantity, at the right time, in the right place for the direct benefit or use of the governments, corporations, or individuals generally via, but not limited to a contract. ... A building code is a set of laws that specify how buildings should be constructed. ... Building is either the act of creating an object assembled from more than one element, or the object itself; see also construction. ... Standardized testing is any test that is used across a variety of schools or other situations. ... The mathematical foundations of statistical reliability are probability and statistics. ... A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ...

In most cases, an effective decentralisation strategy and correspondingly robust systems of professional education, vocational education, and trade certification are critical to creating a modern industrial base. Such robust systems, and commodity markets to accompany them, are a necessary but not sufficient feature of any developed nation. A major goal of the industrial strategy of any developing nation is to safely decentralise decision-making so that central controls are unnecessary to achieving standards and safety. It seems that a very high degree of social capital is required to achieve trust in such standards and systems, and that ethical codes play some significant roles in building up trust in the professions and in the trades. A professional degree is an academic degree that is regulated under common laws of the Swedish government and examined and awarded by prescribed schools and universities, and intended for those wishing to follow a given profession. ... A blacksmith is a traditional trade. ... A professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation often called simply certification or qualification is a designation earned by a person to certify that he is qualified to perform a job. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A developed country is a country that is technologically advanced and that enjoys a relatively high standard of living. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, as differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand. ... A developing country is a country with low average income compared to the world average. ... Warning signs, such as this one, can improve safety awareness. ... Social capital is a socio-economic concept with a variety of inter-related definitions, based on the value of social networks. ... Ethical codes are specialized and specific codes of ethics. ...

The consumer product markets, industrial product markets, and service markets that emerge in a mature industrial economy, however, still ultimately rely, like the simpler commodity markets, on complex systems of standardization, regulation, jurisdiction, transport, materials and energy supply. The specification and comparison of these is a major focus of the study of political economy. Political or other decision-making units typically must be large and leveraged enough for economy of scale, but also small enough that centralised authority does not become unaccountable to those performing trades or transactions at its perimeter. Large states, as Benjamin Franklin observed, were prone to becoming tyrannies, while small states, correspondingly, tended to become corrupt. In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. ... Street markets such as this one in Rue Mouffetard, Paris are still common in France. ... In marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. ... In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Standardization, in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... In law, jurisdiction refers to the aspect of a any unique legal authority as being localized within boundaries. ... In engineering and manufacturing, the term specification has the following meanings: Technical requirement An essential technical requirement for items, materials, or services, including the procedures to be used to determine whether the requirement has been met. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... ... Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1777 Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most prominent of Founders and early political figures and statesmen of the United States. ... A tyrant (from Greek τύραννος týrannos) is a usurper of rightful power, possessing absolute power and ruling by tyranny. ...

Finding the appropriate size of political states or other decision-making units, determining their optimal relationship to social capital and to infrastructural capital, is a major focus of political science. In management science there are studies of the ideal size of corporations, and some in anthropology and sociology study the ideal size of villages. Dennis Fox, a retired professor of legal studies and psychology, proposed an ideal village size of approximately 150 people in his 1985 paper about the relationship of anarchism to the tragedy of the commons. Social capital is a socio-economic concept with a variety of inter-related definitions, based on the value of social networks. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... Political science is a social science discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. ... Management science, or MS, is the discipline of using mathematics, and other analytical methods, to help make better business decisions. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, humane) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... The tragedy of the commons is a phrase used to refer to a class of phenomena that involve a conflict for resources between individual interests and the common good. ...

All these fields recognize some factors that encourage centralised authority and other factors that encourage decentralised "democracy" — balances between which are the major focus of group dynamics. However, decentralisation is not only a feature of human society. It is also a feature of ecology. The term group dynamics implies that individual behaviours may differ depending on individuals current or prospective connections to a sociological group. ... (Ecology is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for the natural environment or environmentalism. ...

Another objection or limit to political decentralisation, similar in structure to that of Engels, is that terrestrial ecoregions impose a certain fiat by their natural water-circulation, soil, and plant and animal biodiversity which constitutes a form of (what the United Nations calls) "natural capital". Since these natural living systems can be neither changed nor replaced by man, some argue that a ecoregional democracy which follows their borders strictly is the only form of decentralisation of larger political units that will not lead to endless conflict, e.g. gerrymandering, in struggle between social groups. Ecoregions are defined by World Wildlife Fund as relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land-use change. Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater ecoregions... Fiat S.p. ... Biodiversity or biological diversity is the diversity of and in living nature. ... Main article: League of Nations The term United Nations was coined by Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, to refer to the Allies. ... Natural capital is a metaphor for the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earths biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other natural services. ... Bioregional democracy (or the Bioregional State) is a set of electoral reforms designed to force the political process in a democracy to better represent concerns about the economy, the body, and environmental concerns (e. ... Printed in 1812, this political cartoon illustrates the electoral districts drawn by the Massachusetts legislature to favor the incumbent Democratic-Republican party candidates of Governor Elbridge Gerry over the Federalists. ... In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of humans or animals, who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. ...

See also

• Centralisation
• Federalism
• Group dynamics
• Political economy
• Anarchism

Centralization is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group. ... Federalism is the idea of a group or body of members that are bound together (latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. ... The term group dynamics implies that individual behaviours may differ depending on individuals current or prospective connections to a sociological group. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... Anarchism derives from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (ruler, chief, king)). Thus anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that rulers are unnecessary and should be abolished. ...

External links

• "On Authority", Engels, 1872
• "What is Authority?", Bakunin
• [http://www.dennisfox.net/papers/commons.html "Psychology, Ideology, Utopia,

and the Commons", Dennis R. Fox, 1985, American Psychologist, 40, 48-58]

• Industrial Workers of the World