A fifth major territorial level of political administration, the prefecture, is not discussed in detail here. China formally treats prefectures as merely "dispatched organs" of the provinces. In reality, the presence and importance of prefectures varies greatly by province. Liaoning Province has abolished almost all prefectures, Sichuan still has some but meshed many into enlarged municipalities in the mid-1980s, while Hunan retains the prefecture as an important operational level of administration. Where they exist, prefectures rank below provinces and above counties, and they serve as coordinating organs between these two administrative levels. In basic organization and function, prefectures are like provinces and counties. Because many localities lack prefectures, the following discussion omits them for the sake of simplicity.