Civil Bureaucracy Research Articles

Weakening of the state by occupying more lands: evidence from the Five Dynasties

Can wars truly build states and rationalize their structures? This study focuses on the administrative origin of state-building and finds historical evidence that seems contrary to the idea of "war-making states". As states acquire more territory, they become increasingly vulnerable to setbacks in subsequent military activities, even when facing state failure or demise. Drawing upon geospatial data spanning from 906 to 969 AD during Chinas Five Dynasties and utilizing a difference-in-differences method, our study reveals that (1) states did not progressively expand in size due to continuous warfare, and (2) larger territorial acquisitions were associated with decreased probabilities of state survival, as expanding net territorial areas corresponded to higher likelihoods of state failure in the following years. (3) The relationship between civilian and military systems within a state profoundly impacts the validity of the "war-making states" hypothesis. This study highlights that war makes states more susceptible to collapse if the military system dominates the civilian bureaucracy. Conversely, if the civilian system controls the military and forms a centralized regime, the "war-making states" hypothesis holds true. These findings revise the prevailing hypothesis of "war-making states" in historical sociology, showing that the "war-making states" hypothesis depends on a specific political structure and bureaucratic system.

Minor monarchs: The ‘Bad-Emperor’ problem in Chinese history

How important is the age and experience of political leaders for the quality of governance? I explore this question in the context of imperial China, where autocratic rule centered on the institution of the emperor persisted for nearly 2,000 years. While the issue of child emperors is frequently discussed in the historiography of China, the impact of minor rulers has not been explored empirically. Using rich biographical information on the lives of rulers, I show evidence consistent with the notion that the age of emperors mattered for the effective administration of the Chinese state. In particular, the incidences of minor monarchs appear to accelerate the decline of a dynasty and occur more frequently toward the end of an imperial dynasty. The rule of minor monarchs coincides with the timing of dynastic crises, nomadic attacks, peasant revolts, and declines in fiscal capacity. To assess causality, I conduct two tests. First, I validate my baseline findings using an instrumental variable strategy that exploits the early but natural deaths of preceding emperors. Second, I show that estimated relationships become stronger after the Tang-Song transition, during which the administrative power of the emperor increased dramatically relative to that of the civilian bureaucracy. Overall, the results in this paper suggest that in the absence of institutional constraints, weak executive leadership can lead to poor national outcomes even in a highly bureaucratized state.

The federal project in Pakistan: beyond fixing the design

ABSTRACT Federalism remains a contested matter in Pakistan. This article analyses the issues of representation, territoriality, ethnicity and asymmetry of the federating units in the federal theory and practice in Pakistan. It focuses on the pattern of conflict between the federation and the provinces following the implementation of the 2010 18th Amendment. While the mainstream and ethnic parties in general welcomed the amendment, un-elected institutions such as the military establishment, the civilian bureaucracy, and the judiciary implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, expressed reservations. Periodic conflict about the relocation of officers, the fiscal transfer regime, the operational aspects of the joint ownership of mineral resources by the federation and provinces, and distribution of water resources continued to make intergovernmental relations controversial. An unintended consequence of the empowerment of provincial governments was the demand for creation of new provinces from minority communities of the provinces.

Kipchak Networks of Power in Mongol China

Kipchak tribes have always had an important military role in the Mongol Empire. In this article, a Kipchak tribe that was at the center of this military role and formed a strong social and political network in Mongolian China is discussed. In addition to their military roles and the social capital they use to strengthen their influence in the Mongolian civil bureaucracy in China, the functioning of their family structure and its benefits are shown. Accordingly, even the marriages of the members of the Kipchak tribe in question served to establish or expand their power networks. Local records of the Jiking Region in China, which hosted many prominent immigrants during the Yuan period, provide important evidence for this investigation. Tuq Tuq’a’s relatives and descendants, who took care to preserve their identity as an elite military unit until the end of the dynasty, both in the civil bureaucracy and in the military field, successfully maintained the position of Commander of the Imperial Guard; In addition, this important and powerful military clan gained significant property and financial advantages in the Jiking Region. This nomadic group that settled in China became an important part of the Yuan Dynasty.

What does it take to make a wrong decision? A qualitative study from Pakistan's health sector.

Pakistan's health system over the past three decades has experienced social, economic, geopolitical instability, and notwithstanding man-made and natural catastrophes. Since 2001, the health system in Pakistan has undergone three phases of organizational and management reforms and does not have a unified national health policy since then. The aim of this research was to assess the factors behind the decision-making by policy planners in the health system of Pakistan. An exploratory qualitative study based on grounded theory was designed where in-depth interviews conducted with 20 representatives of the political constituencies, civil bureaucracy, health planners and managers, research and educational institutions, NGOs providing technical support in the health sector, development partners and media. There leading reason cited was the dearth of leadership in health sector, which is compounded by a range of factors such as "institutional monopoly", "contextual deterrents", "power for turf"; "inadequate knowledge", and "design faults". Such factors were perceived to have a serious effect on the competencies, roles and responsibilities, use of knowledge for decision making. The behavioral aspects of decision makers include the "mindset," and "conflicting interests". The multitude of factors and complexities within the health sector of Pakistan continue to widen the vacuum in the leadership echelons. Hence, there is a high probability of taking wrong decisions not based on evidence, and resulting in a grossly under-performing health system.

THE RETURN OF UNITED STATES (US) POLICY OF CONTAINMENT ANDEVOLVING SINO-US CONTEST FOR MARITIME SUPREMACY

Maritime affairs, strategy, gunboat diplomacy, naval policy, and maritime policy can be found in the lexicon and available literature on naval affairs. Contrary to the abovementioned terminologies used by notable experts in the field including Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan authors have used the term “maritime/naval foreign policy.” Deliberate use of the term is aimed to compel people to pay attention and widely use it in the literature. The qualitative research method is deemed appropriate for the completion of this study. The hypothesis formulated in this paper is that naval might cannot be viewed alone as a means to achieve political, military, territorial, and economic objectives. This academic study emphasizes major powers' navies are intrinsically superior to indigenous organs commanding seas and have foreign policies. The paper emphasizes that navies of hegemonic powers enjoy autonomy and influence decision-making processes and outcomes at home and abroad. The primary purpose of navies is to grow parasitically on state resources, build maritime empires outside the sphere of influence of political leadership, civilian bureaucracy, and rival armed forces, and often avoid providing information or if necessary, provide information on a need-to-know basis to the ruling political elite based in the center. This study emphasizes the United States (US) desire to remain a preponderant power, preserve status-quo and prevent threats to liberal international order by containing the People's Republic of China (PRC) through the formation of mini-alliances resulting in PRC’s naval foreign policy. Beijing’s naval foreign policy core objective is to enter distant areas and secure the supply of energy shipments to the mainland by securing sea lanes of communications (SLCs). The enthusiastic policy is backed by deployments of aircraft carriers, amphibious naval forces, and the Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).

The Sinews of Governance: Bureaucracy, Narrative, and Power under Colonialism and Independence

This paper attempts to explore the production of an exegesis of written output by a civil bureaucracy, and to compare this output over two periods of governance. On the one part was the British bureaucracy in the Indus region, but more especially the Punjab, during British rule; and on the other the bureaucracy in Pakistan after 1947. The intention of the paper is to analyse the problematic of governance from a somewhat different approach, and one which to the author’s knowledge has yet not been undertaken, in our efforts to understand the power dynamics that have moulded the contours of governance in the Indus region in modern times. I have attempted elsewhere an analysis of these processes and developments.1 Therefore, rather than revisit these materials and arguments, I will suggest here a complementary yet distinct perspective for probing into the complexities of power and governance in this region. The question to be posed is whether, and how, could the emergence of a descriptive and analytical written discourse, by public officials, itself become the articulation of a narrative of power, authority and control. Moreover, in comparing the two periods, we might be able to glean some insights into the capability needs of public management and local and national governance systems, in addressing the challenging political and socio-economic environment facing contemporary Pakistan. These are huge areas of analysis, and mostly uncharted ones. The present paper can only hope to raise some relevant questions, and suggest some pertinent, if tentative, answers.

THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN PAKISTAN FROM 1988 TO 1999 (SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SINDH PROVINCE)

This research article’s primary goal is to determine the triggers and implications of Pakistan’s political instability and its effects on the political situation of Sindh during the democratic decade from 1988 to 1999. Despite abundant natural resources, Pakistan is one of the only countries where political unrest has severely hampered the social and political development of the country. So, this paper aims to understand the leading factors of political instability that weakened the country’s political growth and led the nation in general and Sindh province, in particular, to suffer social and ethnic problems in society. To understand the issue deeply, the researcher used unstructured Interviews as a research tool with law-makers, academicians, and political scientists. However, many interviewees accepted that the lack of enthusiastic leadership, the Role of the weak judiciary, the passive role of civil bureaucracy, and political ethnicity had been the leading factors for political and social unrest. Thus, the study’s findings would help the law-makers and academicians of different colleges and universities to design their policies and curriculum. Additionally, this paper would help various nationalists and political parties of Sindh province to comprehend the genuine reasons for unrest in the area from 1988 to 1999.
 Key Words: Political instability, Weak Judiciary, Political ethnicity, Foreign interference, Role of civil bureaucracy

Spillovers Between Institutional Interactions Index, Market Risk and Return: Case of Turkey (2007-2020)

One of the key components of political stability is relations with institutions, which refers to the relationships between the government and higher judicial organ, government and presidency, government and military bureaucracy, government civil bureaucracy and independent economic institutions, and relations with international institutions. The importance of institutions for economic development and stability has been thoroughly discussed by both the old and new schools of institutional economics, who developed theses against the Classical and Neo-Classical paradigms. In the study, we utilized VAR-VECH-TARCH models to understand spillover effects between our newly introduced Institutional Interaction Index (II), markets returns (BIST 100, FX), and risks (CDS). The Institutional Interaction Index, the novelty of this paper, was obtained from data published daily by S. Bilişim. According to the results especially in the long-term spillover exists between all variables. The results from this study support institutionalist approaches. As the relations with institutions deteriorate, BIST100 and FX rate volatilities, that is, instability, increases due to the increase in market risks.

Securing the emperor, securitising the guns: the strangely delayed dissemination of Ottoman military technology in the late Ming empire

This article analyses the reasons behind the delayed appropriation and adoption of Ottoman harquebuses by the Ming army. Although these weapons had reached the empire by the mid-16th century, their existence was only acknowledged at the end of the century. Through the lens of securitisation, I will argue that this delay was a result of the context of Luso-Ottoman geopolitical rivalries in which these weapons were possibly leveraged as an incentive to form a Sino-Ottoman alliance against the Portuguese. I will argue that a civil bureaucracy averse to assertive activist rulership could have prevented the emperor from participating in the resulting military diplomacy. By comparing this event with a later Dutch East India Company embassy with similar geopolitical intentions, I will argue that the Ming civil officials achieved their goal by controlling the emperor�s perception of Ottoman intentions. In terms of securitisation, this meant that the emperor himself was the main audience and his officials the securitising agents in matters of foreign relations.

A Decade of Political Unrest: An Analysis of General Zia Era in Pakistan

The problem with Pakistan's democracy is not that only political institutions are weak but the interference of non-elected forces has also done havoc with it. Apart from the high handedness of civilian bureaucracy the unswerving military adventurism disrepute the political process of the country. The entry of military into the corridors of powers hit hard the final nail into the coffin of democratization in Pakistan. General Zia tactfully maneuvered his plan cashed the extreme polarization political parties proved yet another great hurdle to the survival democratic system. The paper analyzes the decade long unrest caused by the military regime of Gen. Zia. The paper also shed light on how abruptly military managed to gain superior position in the politics of the country. The immaturity that demonstrated by political setup is also the concern of this endeavor. Qualitative approach has been adopted to satisfy the puzzling queries pointed out above.

Editorial Note

We are pleased to offer you the third issue of JOLCEL, a journal devoted to the study of Latin literature from a European and diachronic perspective. Thus far, we have published two thematic issues. In the first issue, we put a spotlight on the often neglected role of Latin education in the production of literature that is regarded as culturally central. Conversely, in the second issue, we looked at contexts where Latin literature occurs as a marginal phenomenon. In these contexts, Latin literature owes its presence to the enduring centrality of Latin education. In this third issue, thematically entitled “Schools and Authority,” we delve deeper into the mediating role that school authorities---teachers, authors, and commentators---played in the reception of classical authorities.
 The school curriculum institutionalised during Antiquity bequeathed to the later history of Latin education a number of authorities who were read as models and as handbooks. Thus, not only were texts from Roman and Greek Antiquity a constant presence in the creation of literary texts, they were also an essential part of school curricula. To take this element into account is to gain an enhanced view on the literary reception of classical texts. The interaction between school and literature is not just a matter of transmission, but also of evaluation, negotiation, and transformation. The goals of Latin education were much broader than teaching how to read and write literature. As Rita Copeland states it in her response to the articles gathered in this issue, Latin education “was the foundation on which reception could be built,” but it “encompassed far more than classicism: theology, the production of new literature, new scientific and philosophical thought, and networks of civil bureaucracy and ecclesiastical administration.” It therefore offers a broader frame from which to study the reception of classical literature in European literary history.
 The three articles in this issue exemplify this approach. First, Chrysanthi Demetriou (Open University of Cyprus) looks at the presence of the school author Terence in the plays by the tenth-century playwright Hrotswitha. She opens up a new perspective on this relation by reading through the lens of Donatus’ hugely influential Commentaries on Terence. In particular, she discusses Hrotswitha’s treatment of rape scenes and links it to Donatus’ use of them as an ideal instance for moral instruction. Second, Brian M. Jensen (Stockholm University) discusses the first book ever printed in Sweden, the Dialogus creaturarum moralizatus. With particular reference to fables attributed to Aesop, he shows how the presentation of these fables depends on pedagogical considerations. In the third and last article of this issue, Lucy Jackson (Durham University) studies the Latin school play Medea, a translation of Euripides’ play by the sixteenth-century humanist George Buchanan. In Buchanan’s version, Medea becomes more of a rhetorician than a sorceress, thereby holding up a model of Latinity to the schoolboys performing the play. Finally, Rita Copeland (University of Pennsylvania) brings these three papers together in a critical response piece.

On the Question of Prince Abdulkerim Effendi’s Becoming the Emperor of Turkestan with Japan’s Support

Japan, whose modernization began in 1868 with the Meiji Restoration taking the West as a model, became powerful enough to change the previous balances in Asia in a short time through its achievements in the economic and military fields. This fact inevitably gave way to conflicts first with China and then with Tsarist Russia. Japan was victorious in both wars and began to pursue new land gains on the mainland through the direction of nationalist groups that were influential in the military and civil bureaucracy and gathered around the idea of ‘Greater Asianism’. Japan expanded her field of influence through direct occupations and founding puppet states and attempted to infiltrate the Turkic world. Japan supported the 1933 uprising in East Turkestan with the intention of making Sultan Abdulhamid’s grandson Prince Abdulkerim Effendi, the Emperor and Caliph of Turkestan, if the uprising were successful. This article investigates the new documents found in the Japanese archives and sheds light on the attitudes of the Turkish Republic and the Soviet Union towards this development.

Secular Official as a Hagiographer: Niketas Magistros and the Life of Theoktiste of Lesbos

Middle Byzantine hagiography abounds with the episodes representing the interaction of saint protagonists with the authorities. Apart of communicating to emperors and empresses, they also deal with the wide range of military and civil bureaucracy representatives in various circumstances. In contrast, it is quite a rare instance when a state official created a hagiographical narrative. The tenth-century Life of St. Theoktiste of Lesbos written by Niketas Magistros provides a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between saints and power not through the inner text space only, but through the outer juxtaposition as well: the text vs the author. The paper focuses on how the author describes his holy heroes and what made Niketas turn to hagiography. Presumably, the text was created to demonstrate to Constantine VII the outstanding abilities of the author who wished to convey to the emperor the idea on his repentance regarding his former mistakes and to plea the emperor to get the permission to return to Constantinople. In order to achieve this aim, Niketas Magistros builds up the images of his characters in a special way. Monk Symeon’s humbleness is represented as the highest human virtue, though the unnamed hunter’s misconduct who tried to steal the deceased Theoktiste’s relics deserves understanding and forgiveness for it is human not to comply with the prudence and piousness.

Derailed Democracy and Daily Dawn: A Critical Analysis of Editorials and Columns (October 1999 – August 2002)

Pakistan inherited administrative institutions from its predecessor colonial state. These institutions were highly centralized, developed over a time period of many centuries and bequeathed intact. Contrastingly, the political and representative institutions and traditions that Pakistan inherited were moribund because they could not experience smooth sailing and hence not evolved over a reasonable time span. Unfortunately political parties could not develop democratic culture which paved the way for civil and military bureaucracy to overcome established institutional structure. By holding very strong power, the institutions of civil and military bureaucracy continued to override what they found in the form of representative. The tide could not be turned and Pakistan went through more than three decades of dictatorships. Media also faced the same fate and could not play the role of healthy criticizer for government as was due on it being the fourth pillar of state. The media can play its constructive role in democracy only if there is encouraging environment that allow them to do so. Democracy and media both suffered not being in good and strong hands during this period. This research paper is an effort to explore, evaluate and analyze the role of Dawn newspaper in responding to the fourth military coup of Oct 12, 1999. The media outlet studied under this research paper is an English daily newspaper “ Dawn ”. It is an analysis of the role of Dawn in public opinion making, developing political consciousness among Pakistani masses and playing the role of healthy and balanced opposition for military coup of Oct 12, 1999. The findings reveal that despite the friendly behavior of Musharraf government towards media, the response of Dawn to fourth martial law of country’s history was very careful and reserve unlike other newspapers of Pakistan. Dawn not only remained stick to its policy of neutrality but also analyzed the events very critically. This research paper is a qualitative analysis of the response of Pakistan’s relatively reliable and unbiased newspaper Dawn towards the fourth military coup and political developments mainly, Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), judicial validation of the military coup and Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Imperial Intoxication: Alcohol and the Making of Colonial Indochina

Making liquor isn't rocket science: some raw materials, a stove, and a few jury-rigged pots are all that's really needed. So when the colonial regime in turn-of-the-century French Indochina banned homemade rice liquor, replacing it with heavily taxed, tasteless alcohol from French-owned factories, widespread clandestine distilling was the inevitable result. The state's deeply unpopular alcohol monopoly required extensive systems of surveillance and interdiction and the creation of an unwieldy bureaucracy that consumed much of the revenue it was supposed to collect. Yet despite its heavy economic and political costs, this unproductive policy endured for more than four decades, leaving a lasting mark on Indochinese society, economy, and politics. The alcohol monopoly in Indochina was part of larger economic and political processes unfolding across the globe. New research on fermentation and improved still design drove the capitalization and concentration of the distilling industry worldwide, while modernizing states with increasing capacities to define, tax, and police engaged in a never-ending search for revenue. Indochina's alcohol regime thus arose from the same convergence of industrial potential and state power that produced everything from Russian vodka to blended Scotch whisky. Yet with rice liquor part of everyday life for millions of Indochinese, young and old, men and women, villagers and city-folk alike, in Indochina these global developments would be indelibly shaped by the colony's particular geographies, histories, and people. Imperial Intoxication provides a unique window on Indochina between 1860 and 1939. It illuminates the contradictory mix of modern and archaic, power and impotence, civil bureaucracy and military occupation that characterized colonial rule. It highlights the role Indochinese played in shaping the monopoly, whether as reformers or factory workers, illegal distillers or the agents sent to arrest them. And it links these long-ago stories to global processes that continue to play out today.

A governança da água: o caso dos comitês dos rios Chapecó e Irani – SC

A governança da água é um importante instrumento de democratização e interação entre o entes públicos e privados na gestão integrada de recursos hídricos. Neste sentido, este estudo objetivou analisar como está sendo desenvolvida a governança da água na Região Hidrográfica do Meio-Oeste Catarinense, a partir da aplicação de dois modelos de análise da governança da água. Para isso foram aplicadas entrevistas e questionários com 18 membros do Comitê das Bacias Hidrográficas dos Rios Chapecó e Irani. A análise local da governança da água evidenciou que este Grupo enfrenta muitas fragilidades, tais como: baixa participação dos membros e da sociedade civil, dificuldades e burocracia nos repasses financeiros, pouco conhecimento legal e técnico dos seus membros, ausência de utilização dos instrumentos previsto na Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos.

Building the Problem-Solving State: Bridging Networks and Experiments in the US Advisory Specialist Group in World War II

Hidden within the office of the Secretary of War during World War II was a little-known agency called the Advisory Specialist Group (ASG). Strategically located between the laboratory, the factory, the battlefield, and civilian bureaucracy, the ASG solved the complex problem of reconciling new technologies and new military operations. In doing so, it combined incongruous domains of activity, contributed to Allied victory, and opened a channel to the problem-solving state. It is easy to overlook or misunderstand the ASG, because it was born in processes, addressed problems, and took a form unfamiliar to historical institutionalists. Drawing on Padgett and Powell’s networked theory of organizational genesis and pragmatist theories of experimentalist governance, this article explains the ASG’s emergence, networked form, and experimentalist procedures. A founding moment for the problem-solving state, this case provides empirical and theoretical guidance to study its historical and ongoing evolution.

QING MILITARY INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY, AND SOCIETY, 1640–1800

AbstractThis article underscores the impact of the Qing dynasty’s war making capacity and organization on non-military areas. Following a brief account of the Qing military establishment and its major operations in the first half of the dynasty,i.e., 1640–1800, it explores several important examples of how Qing military institutions interacted with the civil bureaucracy and society at large. First, through the practice of appointing officials across the divide between the civil and military bureaucracies, military personnel penetrated into the domain of the civil state apparatus, quietly transforming the Qing government’s makeup. Second, Qing military costs deeply influenced the distribution of dynastic financial resources and general administration at all levels. Finally, the Qing’s wartime logistical system engaged both the civil bureaucracy and society, opening many opportunities for both civil bureaucracy personnel and the private sector, which in turn re-shaped the local socio-economic landscape.

Pakistan: Civil-Military Relations in a Post-Colonial State

This article has attempted to explain why the military has remained a powerful political institution/force in Pakistan. Its purpose was to test a hypothesis that posited that the colonial authority structure and the 1947 partition-oriented structural dynamics provided an important structural construct in explaining politics and the military in post-colonial Pakistan. To explain and analyse the problem, the study used books, journals, newspapers and government documents for quantitative/explanatory analysis. The analysis has focused on the military in the colonial authority structure in which the former, along with the civil bureaucracy and the landed-feudal class, formed an alliance to pursue politico-economic interests in British India. The article has also explained and analysed the partition-oriented structural dynamics in terms of territory (Kashmir) and population (Indian refugees). The findings proved that these 'structural dynamics' have affected politics and the military in Pakistan. The theoretical framework in terms of 'praetorian oligarchy' has been applied to structurally explain colonial politics ad well as politics and the military in Pakistan. The study treated Pakistan as a praetorian state which structurally inherited the pre-partition 'praetorian oligarchy'. This praetorian oligarchy constructed 'Hindu India' as the enemy to pursue politico-economic interests. The military, a part of praetorian oligarchy, emerged from this as a powerful political actor due to its coercive power. It has sought political power to pursue economic objectives independently.