Centralization is the increased concentration of control of decisions or services to a single governing authority. Decentralization is the transfer of power of decisions or services to several orders of government.
Decentralization and centralization trends between the federal governments and constituent regional governments are crucial to understanding how federal systems operate. Successful federal systems maintain a balance between a sufficiently strong federal government to ensure the unity and coherence of the federation and sufficiently strong constituent units able to offer genuine political autonomy and diverse policies to their respective citizens. De/centralization trends matter because they alter the balance and can affect the quality of governance.
