State Formation and Bureaucratization: Evidence from Pre-Imperial China

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between military conflicts and state-building in pre-imperial China. I develop an incomplete contract model to examine ruler’s and local administrator’s incentives at conflict. Defensive wars drive decentralization: landowning local administrators have more to gain from a successful defense, and are therefore more committed to it. Offensive wars drive centralization: the landowning ruler has personnel control over the non-land-owning local administrator, and can therefore force the latter to participate in less lucrative attacks. Model predictions are consistent with empirical tests and historical cases, and offer broader implications for the political divergence between China and Europe.

Keywords: State Formation, Bureaucratization, Centralization, China

JEL Classification: D73, H70, N45