Description:

Keep It in the Family: Elite Marriage Network and State-Making in Imperial China

Yuhua Wang

Asst. Professor, Dept. of Government

Harvard University

Abstract: 

Why do some politicians support state centralization while others oppose it? Existing theories focus on macro-level factors, such as war. But holding macro-level variables constant, some elites might have a stronger incentive to centralize the state than others. I develop a framework where state centralization requires elite collective action and derive that the geography of elite marriage network is correlated with their support for state centralization. Elites who have a geographically dispersed marriage network can benefit from scale economies and are more likely to support strengthening the central state; elites who have a geographically concentrated marriage network tend to free ride and prefer state fragmentation. I empirically evaluate the framework using an original dataset of elite marriage network compiled from tomb epitaphs in China’s Northern Song Dynasty. My results suggest that elite social relations affect state development.