The adminstration of a government by a central authority. Centralization, understood as the concentrating of power or authority in the hands of the state, is often associated with socialist or communist systems. [The following is a comment from one of our readers, Richard Pond: "Your statement that centralization is associated with socialist systems could be misleading. The Spanish socialists have been much more decentralist than the Spanish right. The French socialists decentralized during the 80s; the Gaullists in contrast had been very centralist. The British conservatives centralize more than the British left does. And most far-right, very conservative or fascist regimes have been very centralist."]

This definition is in context to Political. See more contextual defintions for Centralization.