Okunev I. Capitals and capitalness: institutional and symbolic dimensions (comparative analysis of Russian and Italian cases) / I.Okunev // Journal of Constitutional History. — 2017. — №33. — P. 155-162.

Our research will make an attempt to analyse the institution of capital cities at the functional and symbolic levels. Not only do capitals serve as headquarters for government bodies, but their functions also include the representation of a nation to itself and its environment. Capitals are the idealized image of a nation and national history, a nation in miniature of sorts. This idea is to verify the assumption that there is an additional mechanism of nation-building, which manifests itself in the creation of an ideal national image and opposing it to peripheral marginality