Who set out this admirable vision of decentralised policy coherence?
Without democracy, you have no understanding of what is happening down below; the situation will be unclear; you will be unable to collect sufficient opinion from all sides; there can be no communication between top and bottom; top-level organs of leadership will depend on one-sided and incorrect material to decide issues, thus you will find it difficult to avoid being subjective; it will be impossible to achieve unity of understanding and unity of action.
That’s right: it was, of course, Chairman Mao. Speaking shortly after the Great Leap Forward. Obviously.
