Suppose we have a hierarchy of social, political, or economic units, each contained in the next larger. For social units we might have, for example, "individual, family, culture, society" or some such. For political units, perhaps "individual, neighborhood, city, county, state/province, nation, alliance/league/union". For economic units, maybe "individual, business, corporation/conglomerate" or something. I'm sure you get the idea and can come up with your own lists that seem appropriate to you.

Thesis: With respect to the above sorts of hierarchical political, economic, and social groupings, no function should be performed by one unit which can be effectively performed by a smaller unit (possibly including family or individual).