In a centralized government all the decisions related to the whole country are done by a specific person or a coordinated group located in a region (usually known as Capital), the rest of the states that are part of the country don't take part on the decisions.
An example of this can be seen in the early times after Mexican Independence, as the rest of the territories were not organized and the country was just coming out from a viceroyalty they were dependent from the government located in Mexico city and sometimes news and resources took too much time to reach the farest locations. This is also one of the reasons why Texas proclaimed its independence.