Short answers, pulled from the story.
Decentralization is the process by which activities related to planning and decision-making are distributed away from a central authority and given to smaller units within an organization or government. It encompasses four main administrative forms: deconcentration, delegation, devolution, and divestment, each transferring different degrees of authority to sub-national or local levels.
"Centralisation" entered French in 1794 and "décentralisation" appeared in the 1820s. Both "centralization" and "decentralization" appear in written English in the first third of the 1800s.
Tocqueville argued that decentralization has not only administrative value but also a civic dimension, because it increases opportunities for citizens to engage in public affairs and practice freedom. He wrote that from the accumulation of local, active, persnickety freedoms grows the most efficient counterweight against central government claims.
Naisbitt's 1982 book Megatrends spent more than two years on The New York Times Best Seller list and sold fourteen million copies. The fifth of its ten megatrends describes a shift from centralization to decentralization.
Analysts frequently identify four goals: participation, diversity, efficiency, and conflict resolution. Participation links decentralization to subsidiarity and local democratic voice. Efficiency arguments hold that managers closest to local information make faster and more relevant decisions. Researcher Dawn Brancati finds that decentralization reduces intrastate conflict when it encourages statewide parties to incorporate regional demands.
Silent decentralization refers to a shift toward dispersed authority that occurs without formal policy or reform. Changes in networks, policy emphasis, and resource availability can lead to a more decentralized system even in the absence of explicit decisions to decentralize.