Communism is a political, economic and social philosophy that seeks to establish joint ownership of the means of production and the elimination of social classes. Communism emerges as a critique of the capitalist system that promoted the accumulation of capital as a mechanism to generate wealth, private ownership of the means of production and the use of the market as a mechanism for allocating resources.

The principles of centralization and decentralization are more or less two sides of the same coin. While centralization holds that it is possible to improve administrative effectiveness by concentrating decision-making in one coordinating body, decentralization, on the other hand, states that decision-making can only be enhanced by delegating decision-making to lower level governments of subordinate units.