centralized government
Power concentrated nationally
A centralized government concentrates political power and decision-making authority in a single national body rather than distributing it among regional or local units.
The central authority controls policy, taxation, and administration across the entire territory: France has historically maintained a highly centralized government.
Contrasts with federal systems where states or provinces retain significant autonomy.
- authoritarianismConcentrated, unchecked governmental power
- absolutismUnrestricted governmental authority
- one-party ruleGovernance by one faction
- iron fistBrutal autocratic rule
- Roman EmpireAncient state from Augustus onward
Soviet Union · sovereignty · public administration · federal oversight · resource allocation · statism · hierarchy · power consolidation · constitution · executive branch · Ottoman Empire · bureaucracy · taxation systems · law enforcement · state monopoly · big government · technocracy · judicial oversight
- Sui DynastyGrand Canal, reunification, imperial family, canal system, legal code
centralized governmentfederalism
Divided governmental authority system
decentralized government · federal system · decentralization · devolution · confederation
centralized governmentlocal government
Regional civic administration
self-rule · local governance · grassroots democracy · localism · direct democracy
centralized governmentanarchy
Disorder from absent authority
statelessness · anarchism · tribal governance · failed state · power vacuum
central, centralize, centralization, decentralize, decentralized, decentralization, centre, center, centers