The Soviet political and administrative system is a sectional (vedomstvennyi) one, meaning that sectional institutions and interests, to a large extent based on branches of the economy, are catered for and recognized. This is evident in Soviet “interest theory,” in which it is made quite clear that sectional interests have a legitimate place in the system. It is of course also obvious in the structure of Soviet administration. With the qualified exception of the sovnarkhoz (Councils of National Economy) period (even then there was ever-growing pressure to set up branch-based State Committees), branch-based organizations have always been the basic administrative unit. Administrative procedures have always recognized and catered for the narrow interests of these organizations, in particular the requirement that all documents going to executive bodies for decision be examined first by all interested parties (vizirovanie). This has been a feature of Soviet administrative practice since the very first days of Lenin's Sovnarkom (Council of People's Commissars). Ellen Jones has described the way the process works in more recent times.

It is the role of the party to oversee and put to good use the sectional units of the political and administrative system. While the concept of the “vanguard” party with its “leading role” was not devised by Lenin as an administrative principle for use in government, it has proved to be very applicable to such a situation.