Could be seen as an expression of dialectic development. The overall tendency in many (most?) living systems is towards integration at the next scale, which nee

Could be seen as an expression of dialectic development. The overall tendency in many (most?) living systems is towards integration at the next scale, which needs a certain amount of centralization. But whenever centralization is imposed it is usually overkill (the pendulum swings too far), which causes a decentralization effort (back to the autonomy of the parts), that however will retain some remnant of the previous centralization drive. At a certain point the decentralization swings too far too, and so centralization takes place again, in a slightly different way this time. The combined effect of these oscillations is an equilibrium between centralization and decentralization of the organism which is optimally adapted to the environment at that scale of integration. Which is why neither centralization nor decentralization are ideals, they are both needed in an evolutionary process, albeit at different times.