Seven Types of Capital City

According to Petter Hall at "Planning Twentieth Century - Capital Cities", the capitals are classified into seven types (Seven Types of Capital City).

This relationship transcribed from the original text, is Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia among Brazilian capitals. A good exercise is to classify the others by this criterion.

1- Multi-Function Capitals: combining all or most oft the highest national-level functions (London, Paris, Tokyo Madrid, Stockholm, Moscow).

2- Global Capitals: a special case of (1), representing cities that also perform super-national roles in politics, commercial life or both (London, Tokyo).

3- Political Capitals: created as seats of government, and often lacking other functions which remains in older-established commercial cities (The Hague, Bonn, Washington, Ottawa, Canberra, Brasilia).

4- Former Capitals: Often the converse of (2); cities that have lost their role as seat of government but that retain other historic functions (Berlin, from 1945 to 1994, St Petersburg, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro).

5- Ex-Imperial Capitals: A special case of (3), representing former imperial cities which have lost their empires though they may function as national capitals, and may also perform important commercial and cultural roles for the former imperial territories (London, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna).

6- Provincial Capitals: A special case in the federal nations, overlapping with (3) ; cities which once functioned as de facto capitals, sometimes on a share basis, but have now lost that role, retaining however functions for their surrounding territories (Milan, Turin, Stuttgart, Munich, Montréal, Toronto, Sidney, Melbourne). New York is a very special case here, almost sui generis, of a global provincial capital.

7- Super Capitals: functioning as centres for international organizations; these may or may not be national capitals (Brussels, Strasbourg, Geneva, Rome; New York).