CENTRALIZATION. In political theory, a tern] used to denote the tendency on the part of a central authority to reserve to itself increasing powers of legislation and adininistration. )lure strictly interpreted. the word centralization is capable of hearing a double meaning. It may signify the complete unification of a political as opposed to a loose assemblage of quasi independent meilibers. In this sense we speak of a strongly centralized federal government as to a incre confederation of States. In this sense. too. the term might be used to de scribe the lax organization of the mediaeval State in which the element of nationality was practically made impossible by the feudal sys tem. In its second meaning. centralization in a State already' completely unified would describe the concentration of governmental functions in the supreme Govern lllellt in salters (wen of hien I interest. In no State, of course, is there any example of an absolntely centralized government, since in the nature of things some degree of power must be delegated to authorities proviie eial. municipal. and local. and thus in Russia. which stands as a type of autoenwy. we find large powers of self-government enjoyed by the rural communes especially. In proportion only as the tendency toward centralization is stronger than the spirit of local self-government, can a government be spoken of as centralized or not In ancient Mune the munieipia possessed a very large measure of self-government under laws emanating 11.0111 thane. At the same lime, so far as the broader aspects of government were con cerned. the Empire was thoroughly centralized
and was ruled from the Urbs as a unit. In the _Middle Ages the power of the central govern ments, Wherever there were such, was naturally small, and the privileges of provincial towns, and communes proportionately large. Powers which are at present conceded to be within the province of the sovereign, even in the least centralized of modern States, such as the administration of public charity and publie edu cation and of justice, were• during the diddle Ages. relegated to the clergy and the territorial lords respeetively. The growth of modern States has been in fact simply a great centralizing movement. but ill certain countries the process of centralization has been more complete than in others. England stands as a type of the first class in which a way seems to have been found for reconciling a strong central organization with wide powers of local self-government. Franee may be taken as a type of the second where the administration even of vont imolai affairs is in large regulated by the central Government. In general. it rimy he said that the Latin countries. in which the traditions of the Roman Empire and the in fluence of the civil law are most strong, are more highly centralized than the northern nations of Europe. '(lie extreme tendency on the part of a government to arrogate to itself fmietions be longing to small groups of inhabitants may. when applied to individuals, assume the (-liar acter of paternalism or socialism.