Study On The Geographic Deviation Of Capital

Capital, where the highest power organ of a country is situated, is the nationaladministration center and the center of political power. It plays a crucial role in theoperation and development of a nation. Therefore, the location of a capital is vital indeciding whether the capital can effectively perform its functions, efficiently managethe national affairs, boost the balanced regional development, and maintain thenational unity and safety. So it’s important for capital location and the construction ofour own capitalBeijing. With the aid of ArcGIS software and over160countiresas the research subject, this thesis calculates the geographical deviation between each’capital and the nations geographical center, population center and economic center,so as to obtain statistics and the rules in spatial distribution of the capitals; it classifiesthe capitals into five types according to their locations and analyses the rules in theselocations; it also discusses the geographical deviation between the two locations aftera nation moves the capital to another place, with a case study of Brazil, the mosttypical and successful example of moving the capital, which demonstrates thei’nfluence of a capitals location on fosteirng balanced regional development; thethesis ends up with some conclusions and suggestions for China.Firstly, under ideal conditions, the best location for the capital is the place nearthe geographical center However, in reality, factors like natural condition, populationdistribution, transportation, history, social condition and national defense, all of themcould assert great influence on the location of the capital, resulting in its deviationfrom the geographical center Secondly, compared with the geographical center, thecapital is closer to the population center and economic center Thirdly, the history,tradition and development of a country as well as its territory area also affect thechoice where to build the capital. Fourthly, when the location of a capital becomesunreasonable due to the factors including national security, natural disasters,administration, and national development, the capital has to be moved to anotherplace. There are two major trends: one is that the capital is moved towards the inlandor the geographical center of the country; the other is that the administrative functionof the modern capital is enhanced, hence the gradual separation of the capital from theeconomic center and the pirmate city.Based on the above analysis, this thesis proposes several suggestions for theconstruction of Chi’nas capital: firstly, moving the capital is not the optimal scheme,but preliminary study could get started, so as to provide theoretical support anddecision making basis for moving the capital in the future. Secondly, it is necessary tosettle the various existing problems in Beijing using diverse solutions, to ensure thatBeijing has effectively performed its administrative function before the capital ismoved, and meanwhile to make the best of time and accumulate as much experienceas possible. Thirdly, it is suggested that certain branches in Beijing like science andresearch, education, culture, even some administrative institutions now be moved toother places. Lastly, reforms in government institutions and the change of government function should be highly promoted, which could build up vigorous political andpolicy support when the capital is moved in the future.