omphalism
Etymology
From omphal- + -ism.
omphalism means A tendency to place the capital of a country at its geographical centre, or to increase the powers of central government at the expense of local government. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
OMPHALISM — [Noun] A political doctrine advocating the placement of a national capital at a nation's geographical center, or the centralization of governmental power in a single, symbolic locus. From the Greek omphalos ("navel, center") and the English suffix -ism ("doctrine, principle"). Unlike federalism, which deliberately diffuses authority through constitutional division, or regionalism, which champions local autonomy and identity, omphalism insists on the relentless gravitational pull toward a sovereign core. It is Brasília carved from the red earth of the Planalto Central, the grand, symmetrical capital rising from an empty plain, and the silent, symbolic weight of a desk situated in the exact geometric center of a vast, marbled hall—a testament to the sublime fiction that from one still point, all chaos can be controlled.
noun
- A tendency to place the capital of a country at its geographical centre, or to increase the powers of central government at the expense of local government.“Last Thursdayism is a response to omphalism which posits that, by the same logic, the world might have been created last Thursday (or, by implication, any given date and time), but with the appearance of age: people's memories, history books, fossils, light already on the way from distant stars, and so forth.”