Editing Seat of government

{{short description|Place from which a government exercises its authority}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}

The '''seat of government''' is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a [[government]] exercises its [[authority]]".<ref>Comfort, N. (1993) Brewer's Politics. A phrase and fable dictionary. London: Cassell.</ref>

In most countries, the nation's [[Capital city|capital]] is also seat of its government, thus that city is appropriately referred to as the national seat of government. The terms are not however, completely synonymous, as [[List of countries with multiple capitals|some countries]]' seat of government differs from the capital. The [[Netherlands]], for example, has [[Amsterdam]] as its capital but [[The Hague]] is the seat of government; and the [[Philippines]], with [[Manila]] as its capital but the [[Metro Manila|metropolitan area of the same name]] (Metro Manila; also known as National Capital Region (NCR)), is the seat of government.

==Local seats of government==
Local and regional authorities usually have a seat, called an [[administrative centre]], as well. Terms for seats of local government of various levels and in various countries include:
* [[County seat]] ([[United States]] and [[Canada]])
* [[County town]] ([[United Kingdom]] and [[Ireland]])
* [[City hall]]/[[Town hall]]
* ''[[Barrio-pueblo]]'' ([[Puerto Rico]])

==Buildings as seats of government==
Examples of seats of government include:
* [[Canada]]: The suite of buildings on or near [[Parliament Hill]] in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]]: the [[Centre Block]] (legislative seat), the [[Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council|Langevin Block]] (executive seat), and 301 [[Wellington Street (Ottawa)|Wellington Street]] (legislative seat).
* [[India]]: Three sites in [[Raisina Hill]], [[New Delhi]]: the [[Parliament House, New Delhi|Parliament House]] (legislative seat), the [[Rashtrapati Bhavan]], [[7, Lok Kalyan Marg]] (executive seat), [[Supreme Court of India]] (judicial seat).
* [[Philippines]]: Four buildings in [[Metro Manila|National Capital Region (NCR)/Metro Manila]], Philippines: the [[GSIS Building]] in [[Pasay]] ([[Senate of the Philippines]]) and [[Batasang Pambansa Complex]] in [[Quezon City]]: [[House of Representatives of the Philippines]] (legislative seat), the [[Malacañang Palace]] (executive seat), and [[Supreme Court of the Philippines]] (judicial seat) in [[Manila]].
* [[United Kingdom]]: Three sites in [[London]]: the [[Palace of Westminster]] (legislative seat), [[10 Downing Street]] (executive seat), and [[Middlesex Guildhall]] (judicial seat). 
* [[United States]]: Three sites in [[Washington, D.C.]]: the [[United States Capitol]] (legislative seat), the [[White House]] (executive seat), and the [[United States Supreme Court Building]] (judicial seat).

==List of seats of country government which are not country capitals==
There are several countries where, for various reasons, the official capital and de facto seat of government are separated:
*[[Benin]]: [[Porto-Novo]] is the official capital, but [[Cotonou]] is the seat of government.
*[[Bolivia]]: [[Sucre, Bolivia|Sucre]] is the [[Constitution of Bolivia|constitution]]al capital, and the [[Supreme Tribunal of Justice (Bolivia)|supreme tribunal of justice]] is located in Sucre, making it the judicial capital. The {{lang|es|[[Palacio Quemado]]}}, the [[Plurinational Legislative Assembly|national congress]] and [[Plurinational Electoral Organ|national electoral court]] are located in [[La Paz, Bolivia|La Paz]], making it the seat of government.
*[[Eswatini]] (Swaziland): [[Lobamba]] is the traditional, spiritual, and  [[Capital (political)|legislative capital]] city of Eswatini, seat of the [[Parliament of Swaziland|Parliament]],<ref name=CPA>[http://www.cpahq.org/cpahq/core/parliamentInfo.aspx?Committee=SWAZILAND "The Parliament of Swaziland"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304120040/http://www.cpahq.org/cpahq/core/parliamentInfo.aspx?Committee=SWAZILAND |date=4 March 2016 }}. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Accessed 7 April 2014.</ref> while the capital is  [[Mbabane]].
*[[Israel]] and [[Palestine]]: [[Jerusalem]] is considered by [[Israel]] to be the national capital since 1950 but was fully declared the undivided capital of the nation from 1980 according to the [[Jerusalem Law]], though most government offices are located in [[West Jerusalem]]. This move is not recognized by the international community and thus the vast majority of embassies are located in [[Tel Aviv]]. In addition, the [[State of Palestine]] also declares [[East Jerusalem]] or the entirety of Jerusalem as its capital but the seat of government resides in [[Ramallah]] as does the [[Palestinian National Authority]].  (''For more details see: [[Status of Jerusalem]]''.)
*[[Ivory Coast]]: [[Yamoussoukro]] was designated the national capital in 1983, but most government offices and embassies are still located in [[Abidjan]].
*[[Malaysia]]: [[Putrajaya]] the federal administrative centre of the Malaysia. The seat of government was shifted in 1999 from [[Kuala Lumpur]] to Putrajaya because of overcrowding and congestion in the former.
*[[Montserrat]]: Its official capital is [[Plymouth, Montserrat|Plymouth]], but it was permanently abandoned in 1997 after it was completely destroyed by the eruptions of the [[Soufrière Hills volcano]]. Since 1998 the ''de facto'' capital is [[Brades]].<ref>Leonard, T. M. (2005). ''Encyclopedia of the Developing World''. Routledge. pp.1083. {{ISBN|978-1-57958-388-0}}</ref> The move was initially intended to be temporary, but it has remained the island's ''de facto'' capital ever since.<ref name="JonnardJonnard2009">{{cite book|last1=Jonnard|first1=M. Jonnard Claude M.|last2=Jonnard|first2=Claude M.|title=Islands in the Wind: The Political Economy of the English East Caribbean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTWrUvfRS2IC&pg=RA1-PT127|date=November 2009|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-1-4401-9426-9}}</ref> Several names have been suggested for the new official capital now being constructed in the Little Bay area.
*[[Netherlands]]: [[Amsterdam]] is the constitutional national capital even though the [[Cabinet of the Netherlands|Dutch government]], the [[States General of the Netherlands|parliament]], the [[Hoge Raad der Nederlanden|supreme court]], the [[Council of State of the Netherlands|Council of State]], and the [[Noordeinde Palace|work palace]] of the [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands|King]] are all located in [[The Hague]], as are almost all the embassies. (''For more details see: [[Capital of the Netherlands]]''.)
*[[Sri Lanka]]: [[Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte]], commonly known as Kotte is the official administrative capital of [[Sri Lanka]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.priu.gov.lk/Parliament/ParliamentHistory.html |title=The Administrative Capital of Sri Lanka since 1982 is Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte. |access-date=7 January 2015 |work=Official Sri Lanka government website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220234944/http://www.priu.gov.lk/Parliament/ParliamentHistory.html |archive-date=20 December 2014}}</ref> It is a satellite city of and located within the urban area of Sri Lanka's de facto economic and legislative capital, [[Colombo]].
*[[Tanzania]]: Until 1974, [[Dar es Salaam]] served as Tanzania's capital city, at which point the capital city commenced transferring to [[Dodoma]], by order of then-president Julius Nyerere,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/tanzanian-city-may-soon-be-one-of-the-worlds-most-populous/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408185525/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/tanzanian-city-may-soon-be-one-of-the-worlds-most-populous/|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 April 2019|title=This Tanzanian city may soon be one of the world's most populous. Is it ready?|date=5 April 2019|website=Environment|language=en|access-date=11 February 2020}}</ref> which was officially completed in 1996. However, {{as of|2018|lc=y}}, it remained focus of central government bureaucracy, although this is in the process of fully moving to Dodoma.

===Countries with no official capital===
*[[Nauru]]: [[Yaren District]] (in earlier times Makwa/Moqua), is the ''[[de facto]]'' capital of [[Nauru]]; the republic does not have an official capital.<ref name=naurugov>[http://www.naurugov.nr/parliament-of-nauru/about-parliament/who-comprises-parliament.aspx Constituencies of Nauru] (naurugov.nr)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Yaren|title=Yaren {{!}} district, Nauru|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2 September 2019}}</ref>
*[[Switzerland]]: {{as of|2020}}, no Swiss city holds an official status of national capital. In 1848, the [[Federal Assembly of Switzerland|Federal Assembly]] voted to locate the seat of government in [[Bern]], but no official status was granted to the city. The city has since been informally referred to as "[[Federal City]]".
*[[Taiwan|Republic of China (Taiwan)]]: Since 7 December 1949, [[Taipei]] has been the [[provisional capital]] and the seat of government of the Republic of China after losing the [[Chinese Civil War]]. Although [[Nanjing]] had been claimed as the nominal capital of the country, its claims were downplayed in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/12/04/2003578264/2 |title=Since the implementation of the Act Governing Principles for Editing Geographical Educational Texts (地理敎科書編審原則) in 1997, the guiding principle for all maps in geographical textbooks was that Taipei was to be marked as the capital with a label stating: "Location of the Central Government" |date=4 December 2013 |access-date=1 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101013333/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/12/04/2003578264/2 |archive-date=1 November 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="capital">{{cite news |title=Interior minister reaffirms Taipei is ROC's capital |date=5 December 2013|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/12/05/2003578356 |newspaper=Taipei Times |access-date=7 December 2013}}</ref>

===Historical examples===
*[[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]]: Since [[German reunification]] in 1990 at the end of the [[Cold War]] and until 1999, [[Berlin]] was its capital and [[Bonn]] was the seat of government. However, the [[Berlin-Bonn Act]] specifies that many federal government institutions are to maintain a seat in Bonn indefinitely. Prior to reunification, the question as to what was the ''de jure'' capital was complicated by questions regarding the status of Berlin.
*[[Kingdom of England]]: The traditional capital was the [[City of London]], while [[Westminster]], outside of the boundaries of the City of London, was the seat of government. They are both today part of the urban core of [[Greater London]].
*[[Kingdom of France]]: The traditional capital was [[Paris]], though in the periods 1682–1789 and 1871–1879 the seat of government was at the [[Palace of Versailles]], located southwest of Paris.

== See also ==
* [[Government]]
* [[Lists of capitals]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Capitals]]
[[Category:Political geography]]
[[Category:Political science terminology]]