The political system was democratic centralism where there are levels of indirect democracy starting from the local levels of factories and villages, which elec

The political system was democratic centralism where there are levels of indirect democracy starting from the local levels of factories and villages, which elect up to a legislature, which elects an executive top command. Power is indirect granted bottom-up but decisions are wide-spreading from top-down. Ironically, there's a level of decentralization in China that's tolerated as long as they meet government goals. (I'd say at times it's too decentralized, so bad behavior is too tolerated as long as it achieves economic directive goals.)