I found Francis Fukuyama's column today with this title fascinating.  China's decentralization seems to have contributed greatly to economic development and also to human rights abuses because neither is effectively controlled by any central authority.  He draws parallels with the development of the centrally imposed Common Law in England (successful) with the French revolution against tyrannical local justice (unsuccessful).  On the economic side, China's decentralization seems to have worked better for it than centralized oligarchy in Putinstan, where everything seemed stagnant until oil and gas prices rose.