Decentralization or decentralisation (see spelling differences) is the process of dispersing

decision-making governance closer to the people and/or citizen. It includes the dispersal of
administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science,
political science, political economy, sociology and economics. Decentralization is also
possible in the dispersal of population and employment. Law, science and technological
advancements lead to highly decentralized human endeavours.

"While frequently left undefined (Pollitt, 2005), decentralization has also been assigned many
different meanings (Reichard & Borgonovi, 2007), varying across countries (Steffensen &
Trollegaard, 2000; Pollitt, 2005), languages (Ouedraogo, 2003), general contexts (Conyers,
1984), fields of research, and specific scholars and studies." (Dubois and Fattore 2009)

A central theme in decentralization is the difference between a hierarchy, based on:

 authority: two players in an unequal-power relationship; and

 an interface: a lateral relationship between two players of roughly equal power.

 Centralisation, or centralization (see spelling differences), is the process by which

the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning decision-
making, become concentrated within a particular location and/or group.

 In political science, this refers to the concentration of a government's power - both

geographically and politically, into a centralised government.

 In neuroscience, centralization refers to the evolutionary trend of the nervous system

to be partitioned into a central nervous system and peripheral nervous system.

 In business studies centralisation and decentralisation is about where decisions are

taken in the chain of command.