Local State Capacity and Mass Rebellion in Qing China, 1644-1910

• In Event: Poster Session: Comparative Politics I

Abstract

Why were mass rebellions so frequent, prevalent, and destructive in imperial China? While several economists have presented evidence for the triggering effect of climate shocks, I cast doubt on this finding and show how local state capacity could have affected the mass rebellions in the Qing dynasty. Using hand-collected data, I find that in Qing China prefectures with greater distance to the national capital Beijing and higher bureaucratic capacity witnessed more rebellions. The findings suggest that greater the distance from one local government to Beijing, the weaker the monitoring capacity of the central court over the local officials would be, resulting in more local extraction that would have caused mass rebellions. Also, increased local bureaucratic power was associated with more rebellions as the officials might have had higher capabilities and incentives to extract and repress the potential rebels.

Author

• Jie Min