Elite Kinship Network and State Building: Theory and Evidence from Imperial China

Wang, Yuhua

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3355692

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The competition can start in many ways, including major economic shocks (Beramendi, Dincecco, and Rogers 2019;Garfias 2018), the geographical distribution of elite kin networks (Wang 2019), and the mode of production (Mares and Queralt 2015;Vogler 2018). State capacity depends on not only the interactions among political elites but also who wins.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Royal Consultants: The Intendants of France and the Bureaucratic Transition in Pre-modern Europe

Sasaki

2021

HPE

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This article explores the pre-modern French bureaucrats of the intendants as proto-modern bureaucrats. Historical research highlights their role in consolidating the state's authority, but few works provide empirical evidence on the intendants as bureaucrats. My paper fills this gap by constructing a new data set of 430 intendants for the period of their most systematic use from 1640 to 1789. My panel data set comprises the prosopography of nearly universal observations in the period to document evidence on recruitment, promotion, and family backgrounds. My findings indicate that although France relied on the intendants for governance, it did not manage them well as the distribution of service duration and appointment age varies greatly. Dense networks intendants form through kinship and marriage also threaten impersonality. My analysis suggests the difficulty of structuring incentives to follow and implement rules. * I thank seminar participants at Keio University and Kwansei Gakuin University and participants at the 2020 Winter Workshop of the Japan Society for Quantitative Social Science for their constructive feedback to the previous drafts. I also thank Beechan Ohn for his research assistance. Financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (18H05666) is gratefully acknowledged. All errors are mine.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Royal Consultants: The Intendants of France and the Bureaucratic Transition in Pre-modern Europe

Sasaki

2021

HPE

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“…To avoid this fate, autocrats throughout history have relied on their family, using children, siblings, and other relatives as advisors and agents (Brownlee 2007;Tullock 1987). That members of the same family are more loyal to each other is often taken for granted in the literature on autocracies (e.g., Geddes et al 2018;Wang 2019). However, strife between relatives is a recurrent theme in autocratic politics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Blood Is Thicker than Water: Family Size and Leader Deposition in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Kokkonen

Krishnarajan

Møller

et al. 2021

The Journal of Politics

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Are large families a liability or an asset for an autocratic ruler? In this article, we show that in medieval and early modern Europe, relatives protected monarchs from challenges from their elite groups, thus reducing their risk of being deposed. Women reduced the risk of both depositions from outside and from within the family, whereas men primarily reduced the risk of outside depositions (as well as the risk of civil wars breaking out). This is demonstrated in a statistical analysis of 27 European monarchies spanning the time period 1000-1799, which enlists new data on royal offspring, siblings, and paternal uncles and aunts. These findings not only elucidate power dynamics in the medieval and early modern world of dynastic politics but also have implications for present-day authoritarian states where institutions are weak and personal relationships retain their importance. I against my brothers; I and my brothers against my cousins; I and my brothers and my cousins against the world.

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Elite Kinship Network and State Building: Theory and Evidence from Imperial China

Cited by 2 publications

References 63 publications

The Royal Consultants: The Intendants of France and the Bureaucratic Transition in Pre-modern Europe

The Royal Consultants: The Intendants of France and the Bureaucratic Transition in Pre-modern Europe

Blood Is Thicker than Water: Family Size and Leader Deposition in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

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