"How can you reconcile a decentralized, democratic structure with getting anything done? "
Unification behind a programmatic approach, which is not the same thing as authoritarianism. Yes, easier said than done, but so are most of the political hopes expressed on the list (like wanting a Chavez or Lenin to come to power in the US).
Different folks also mean different things when they use the word "decentralized," which complicates things. To some people it just means "smaller is better."
I avoid the term, personally. I prefer to think of federalism -- that is, entities that check-and-balance each other, sort of how the US govt is *supposed* to work, where one branch theoretically keeps another from overreaching. When I think of decentralization of power, I think of this; or, rather, instead of thinking of "decentralized power," I think of federalized power, bottom-up, with some sort of in-built checks to keep any single entity from gathering too much authority to itself. I think when one entity gathers too much power to itself, that this is a bad thing. People have revolted against kings for doing that kind of thing.
You could argue the most efficient way to "get things done" is to have a single guy calling the shots, i.e. a king or general or some El Supreme type figure, barking out orders. Maybe it's more "efficient" in some sense, but the tradeoff to personal freedom seems pretty bleak. There are tradeoffs people seem willing to accept in France, for example, with higher taxes, but they get better healthcare and have more vacation time. And maybe a tradeoff with democratic structures is that things don't get done as quickly, but I don't think that's necessarily true, either: Hasn't the abolition of slave societies and kings been somehow coupled with greater productivity in the West in a broad historical sense? That is, things have gotten done at a rapidly accelerating pace since the liberal Enlightenment revolutions; places stuck with kings and despots seem less efficient, historically, so a return to more authoritarianism, instead of less, wouldn't make sense in that regard.
You can have democratic structures that are unified behind a single program of action.
-B.