Merit Promotion List
A viewset for viewing and editing Merit Promotions.
GET /api/sc/merit-promotions/?format=api&page=7
{ "count": 398, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/merit-promotions/?format=api&page=8", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/merit-promotions/?format=api&page=6", "results": [ { "id": 301, "polity": { "id": 696, "name": "tz_buhayo_k", "long_name": "Buhaya", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1890 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " Inferred from the fact that full-time specialised bureaucracy does not seem to have emerged in the broader Great Lakes region prior to the colonial era. For example, in Nkore, \"The royal court served as a judicial and political center, but not as a bureaucratic focal point. The Mugabe's chief minister, the Enganzi, was not a prime minister in the usual sense of leader of government business. He was merely the King's favorite. Neither was there a cabinet nor governmental bureaux [...]. No distinction between the royal and state treasury was made and the heads of local administrative units were not required to attend court or reside at the capital as in Buganda, for instance.\"§REF§(Steinhart 1978: 144) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/D3FV7SKV/collection.§REF§ In Rwanda: \"In this sort of government, administration was not yet institutionalized.\"§REF§(Vansina 2004: 63) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5J4MRHUB/collection.§REF§ In Burundi, the king seemingly entrusted administration mostly to close relatives and local chiefs: \"Ntare relied on his sons as administrators: he was strong enough to set up his sons, but not strong enough to incorporate these regions fully within central control. [...] During the late nineteenth century, under the reign of Mwezi Gisabo, a four-tiered system of administration emerged: a central area around Muramvya under the control of the king; an area under the administration of his sons or brothers most closely allied to the king; a broad swath further east and south administered by Batare chiefs, the descendants of Ntare; and another zone, covering the western and northwestern areas of the country, under the administration of others, not Baganwa (in fact, they were mostly Hutu authorities). [...] Administrative authorities in the east and south- east, often Batare (descendants of Ntare Rugamba), simply retained their administrative autonomy while acknowledging nominal central court ritual hegemony. Those in the northeast more characteristically undertook open revolt, often by those who sought to overthrow Mwezi.\" §REF§(Newbury 2001: 283-284) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/J5A6DM3P/collection.§REF§ " }, { "id": 302, "polity": { "id": 608, "name": "gm_kaabu_emp", "long_name": "Kaabu", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1867 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " levels. \"We emphasise from the beginning that our historical knowledge of kings and the length of their reigns, and of the political structure and organisation of Kaabu remains very limited.\"§REF§(Giesing and Vydrine 2007: 4, quoted in Green 2009: 92) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/V2GTBN8A/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 303, "polity": { "id": 663, "name": "ni_oyo_emp_1", "long_name": "Oyo", "start_year": 1300, "end_year": 1535 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " \"Contexts that could shed light on the dynamics of social structure and hierarchies in the metropolis, such as the royal burial site of Oyo monarchs and the residences of the elite population, have not been investigated. The mapping of the palace structures has not been followed by systematic excavations (Soper, 1992); and questions of the economy, military system, and ideology of the empire have not been addressed archaeologically, although their general patterns are known from historical studies (e.g, Johnson, 1921; Law, 1977).\"§REF§(Ogundiran 2005: 151-152)§REF§ Regarding this period, however, one of the historical studies mentioned in this quote also notes: \"Of the earliestperiod of Oyo history, before the sixteenth century, very little is known.\"§REF§(Law 1977: 33)§REF§ Law does not then go on to provide specific information directly relevant to this variable." }, { "id": 304, "polity": { "id": 570, "name": "es_spanish_emp_2", "long_name": "Spanish Empire II", "start_year": 1716, "end_year": 1814 }, "year_from": 1716, "year_to": 1814, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": "“Finally, the crown seems to have actively sought to provide tangible and enticing rewards to those provincial governors who served faithfully in Spanish America, either by promoting them to more important and reputed posts within the Indies, or by granting them distinctions and appointments in Spain. Upon his return to the Peninsula in 1731, Antonio Manso Maldonado, was appointed interim, and then proprietary, governor of Ceuta; he received a promotion to the rank of teniente general of the Spanish armies in 1734 and was finally appointed captain-general of Guipuzcoa in 1739.”<ref>(Eissa-Barroso 2017: 214) Eissa-Barroso, Francisco A. 2017. The Spanish Monarchy and the Creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717–1739). Leiden: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XNET89MW</ref>" }, { "id": 305, "polity": { "id": 579, "name": "gb_england_plantagenet", "long_name": "Plantagenet England", "start_year": 1154, "end_year": 1485 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Bureaucrats could rise through the ranks at both local and state levels. §REF§(Prestwich 2005: 60-70) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI§REF§" }, { "id": 306, "polity": { "id": 575, "name": "us_united_states_of_america_reconstruction", "long_name": "Us Reconstruction-Progressive", "start_year": 1866, "end_year": 1933 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 307, "polity": { "id": 302, "name": "gb_tudor_stuart", "long_name": "England Tudor-Stuart", "start_year": 1486, "end_year": 1689 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Bureaucrats could rise through the ranks at both local and state levels. §REF§(Prestwich 2005: 60-70) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI§REF§" }, { "id": 308, "polity": { "id": 567, "name": "at_habsburg_2", "long_name": "Austria - Habsburg Dynasty II", "start_year": 1649, "end_year": 1918 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “The burst of “modernization” in the middle decades of the eighteenth century gave the Habsburg monarchy institutions reasonably advanced for their time. Centralization of power was achieved in large part through the growth of a central bureaucracy, in the Habsburg lands as elsewhere. One estimate has 6,000 members of the state bureaucracy in 1740, 10,000 in 1762, and 20,000 in 1782. These numbers increasingly came from people of non-noble classes, which helped expand the regime’s base of support. Joseph’s travels around the monarchy convinced him that the professionalism of local officials was often low, which inspired his mission to improve the bureaucracy. Thus training was improved, pay increased and tied more to merit, and a pension system introduced.”§REF§(Curtis 2013: 242) Curtis, Benjamin. 2013. The Habsburgs: The History of a Dynasty. London; New York: Bloomsbury. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TRKUBP92§REF§ “The period 1780 to 1848 saw both an absolute and a proportional increase in the numbers of non- noble men who served at the higher levels of the bureaucratic ser vice. During this period a bureaucrat’s success depended increasingly on proof of his individual merit. A bureaucratic post could be considered neither hereditary nor venal. The candidate who earned it became an active participant in the very construction of the new state. In this sense, as Waltraud Heindl has argued, the expansion of the bureaucracy as the executor of state policy rested on an Enlightenment ideal of dedicated citizenship. “[The bureaucrat’s] job presupposed a concept of citizenship, and to be a citizen meant, according to the Enlightenment . . . active participation in the construction of the nation state. His post could neither be hereditary, nor for sale [venal], nor could it depend on the caprice of the prince [monarch].”12 In turn, the rapid expansion of non- noble membership in this bureaucracy produced a workplace ethos that by 1800 had incorporated new habits, new social behaviors, and new cultural practices among bureaucrats both at the office and in domestic settings with their families.”§REF§(Judson 2016: 59) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW§REF§ " }, { "id": 309, "polity": { "id": 587, "name": "gb_british_emp_1", "long_name": "British Empire I", "start_year": 1690, "end_year": 1849 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 311, "polity": { "id": 566, "name": "fr_france_napoleonic", "long_name": "Napoleonic France", "start_year": 1816, "end_year": 1870 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 312, "polity": { "id": 305, "name": "it_lombard_k", "long_name": "Lombard Kingdom", "start_year": 568, "end_year": 774 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": " Merit promotions have not been mentioned in the sources consulted." }, { "id": 313, "polity": { "id": 295, "name": "tm_khwarezmid_emp", "long_name": "Khwarezmid Empire", "start_year": 1157, "end_year": 1231 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 314, "polity": { "id": 561, "name": "us_hohokam_culture", "long_name": "Hohokam Culture", "start_year": 300, "end_year": 1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 315, "polity": { "id": 797, "name": "de_empire_1", "long_name": "Holy Roman Empire - Ottonian-Salian Dynasty", "start_year": 919, "end_year": 1125 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "" }, { "id": 316, "polity": { "id": 573, "name": "ru_golden_horde", "long_name": "Golden Horde", "start_year": 1240, "end_year": 1440 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 317, "polity": { "id": 360, "name": "ir_saffarid_emp", "long_name": "Saffarid Caliphate", "start_year": 861, "end_year": 1003 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 318, "polity": { "id": 786, "name": "gb_british_emp_2", "long_name": "British Empire II", "start_year": 1850, "end_year": 1968 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 319, "polity": { "id": 600, "name": "ru_romanov_dyn_1", "long_name": "Russian Empire, Romanov Dynasty I", "start_year": 1614, "end_year": 1775 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": null, "description": "Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, further shaped the Russian bureaucracy after seizing power in 1762. She made changes to the promotion system within the bureaucracy, decreeing in 1764 and 1767 that bureaucrats would receive automatic promotions after seven years in one rank, regardless of office or merit. Catherine also aligned ecclesiastic provinces with administrative boundaries, thus increasing the bureaucracy's control over the church.§REF§Pipes, Richard. Russia under the Old Regime. 2nd ed, Penguin Books, 1995.<a href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LEIXLKAP\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"fw-bolder\"> <b> Zotero link: LEIXLKAP</b></a>§REF§" }, { "id": 320, "polity": { "id": 121, "name": "pk_kachi_urban_1", "long_name": "Kachi Plain - Urban Period I", "start_year": -2500, "end_year": -2100 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "" }, { "id": 321, "polity": { "id": 439, "name": "mn_shiwei", "long_name": "Shiwei", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 1000 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": null, "description": "The following seems to suggest that bureaucracy as a whole was absent. “The Shiwei, in the periods of the Sui and Tang, were relatively weak in the northwestern Manchuria. Their form of social organization appeared fairly loose and still remained at tribal level.”§REF§(Xu 2005, 180)§REF§" }, { "id": 322, "polity": { "id": 173, "name": "tr_ottoman_emirate", "long_name": "Ottoman Emirate", "start_year": 1299, "end_year": 1402 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "For later centuries, merit promotion present within the slave class.<br>Bureaucracy was staffed mostly from a slave class of boys raised from the devsirme tribute system, every five years, from Christian families (mostly from the Balkans region). They were taught Turkish, converted to Islam and educated from childhood to work in the military and government, excluding sons of most Muslim fathers within the Empire. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TXBEVNTP\">[Palmer 2011]</a>", "description": "The following excerpts summarise the early development of Ottoman bureaucracy. They seem to suggest that at this stage, not only were only some elements of bureaucracy in place rather than the whole system, which came later, but what bureaucracy existed was patrimonial rather than meritocratic.\r\n\r\n\"The Ottoman bureaucracy is defined here as the men who were paid to manage the affairs of the government: specifically the members of the scribal service and financial officers (kalemiye), along with the ubiquitous secretaries who accompanied every bureau in the empire. […] It is not until the reign of Süleyman in the sixteenth century that the kalemiye and the government as a whole may properly be called a bureaucracy. As the Ottoman armies pushed west into Hungary and Austria and south and east to the Indian Ocean, the influx of new territories brought about increases in the bureaucracy’s size, influence and degrees of specialization and professionalization. So while the origins of the Ottoman bureaucracy lay in the patrimonial house of the sultan and while its general contours reflect this fact, the administration developed characteristics of an impersonal, predictable and rationalized organization as it expanded. This process of bureaucratization did not come about immediately or easily. It took time, and people continued to rely on patrimonial relations to advance in rank while adopting bureaucratic styles. The transition mostly took place during Süleyman’s reign, although, once established, bureaucracy continued to coexist with elements of patrimonialism for centuries. […] Looking at the core regions of the empire, we quickly get a sense of the bureaucratic features of Ottoman rule that had formed by the end of the sixteenth century. In these regions, administrators and judges were appointed from the capital on a rotating basis, rules of office were codified and passed down, training was formalized, career lines and hierarchies were present, and universalistic principles as well as an ‘ethos’ of office – being an Ottoman bureaucrat – were all in evidence. Elements of the system – which had roots in the traditions of Near Eastern and Islamic governance as well as Byzantine land practices – were already discernable in the fourteenth century when the house of Osman was still an Anatolian principality.\"§REF§(Barkey 2016: ) Barkey, K. 2016. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923): The Bureaucratization of Patrimonial Authority. In Crooks and Parsons (ed) Empires and Bureaucracy in World History: From Late Antiquity to the Twentieth Century pp. 102-126. Cambridge University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JGQJ29PI/library§REF§" }, { "id": 323, "polity": { "id": 134, "name": "af_ghur_principality", "long_name": "Ghur Principality", "start_year": 1025, "end_year": 1215 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "Unclear.\r\n\r\nNizami suggests a rudimentary bureaucratic system before the conquest of Ghazna--likely, perhaps, one that is not meritocratic.\r\n\r\n“Government machinery in the earlier period was confined to the management of essential government functions, but when Ghazna came under Ghurid control, it was natural that the administrative institutions as developed by the Ghaznavids should be adopted. A certain number of features of the Seljuq administrative system were also taken over. […] The vizier was the head of the civil administration.”§REF§(Nizami 1999, 194) K A Nizami. The Ghurids. M S Asimov. C E Bosworth. eds. 1999. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. Part One. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. Delhi.§REF§\r\n\r\nThomas suggests that nepotism was prevalent in higher administrative ranks, which perhaps suggests that it was present all the way down the ladder as well. Moreover, Thomas briefly refers to the lack of a robust, coherent centralized imperial administrative structure.\r\n\r\n“… in the center and west of the Ghurid empire, Ghiyath al-Din continued the Ghurid tradition of assigning appanages, or provinces, to his relatives, who displayed varying degrees of loyalty and were prone to flee in the face of adversity. This lack of a robust, coherent centralized imperial administrative structure contributed to the demise of the dynasty and its empire.”§REF§Thomas, David C. 2016. Ghurid Sultanate. In MacKenzie (ed) The Encyclopedia of Empires. John Wiley & Sons. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/EJJTSHCM/library§REF§\r\n\r\nAt the same time, Husseini points to the existence of bureaucratic officials, though much key information about them appears to be unknown, including whether they received a state salary, which would help us determine whether or not they were professional, and therefore may have received some sort of official training. Equally, however, Husseini does suggest that the role of muqaddam may have been assigned to people for their knowledge of a region rather than through nepotism.\r\n\r\n“Persian documents from Ghur offer new information on the administrative role of the Ghurid Muqaddam. In all the relevant documents, the term Muqaddam is specifically associated with the village (qarya). The Muqaddam was an influential person within his village, had good knowledge of his region, and was recognized as the village headmen by the administration in Ghur. In KMS 36, the Muqaddams of a place called Bandalizh are mentioned alongside the notables (Khwajagān), suggesting that the Muqaddams were important figures in their villages. In some documents they are praised with a specific formula, dāma ʿizzahum (“may their glory continue!”). Possibly, their knowledge about the village and their social position as local notables paved the way for them to be the Muqaddam.\r\n\r\n“Whether the Muqaddam was appointed by the state is not clear from the KMS documents. However, the Muqaddam is mentioned in documents issued by the fiscal department suggesting that he worked for the state. Whether the Muqaddam received a state salary or was entitled to a portion of the yield is also not mentioned. It is also not known if the state share was taken after the harvest was collected and winnowed or before that. In any case, the Muqaddam was allowed to borrow grain from the government stores if he needed it. We know this because one of the KMS documents include a letter in which certain Muqaddams are ordered to return the grain that they borrowed.\r\n\r\n“The main responsibility of the Muqaddam was to collect ʿushr when it was ready and to check if his village paid the state share in full.33 In KMS 34, the Muqaddams of Bandalizh were asked to make sure that all ordinary (ʿām) and elite (khās)̣ people paid the taxes.34 The collection of ʿushr was done in the presence of the state’s agent, the Muʿtamid. The Muqaddam had no right to collect the state share without the Muʿtamid’s presence and without his direct supervision.”§REF§(Husseini 2021, 98-99) Husseini, Said Reza. 2021. The Muqaddam Represented in the pre-Mongol Persian Documents from Ghur. Afghanistan 4(2): 91–113. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ID6DBB75/library§REF§" }, { "id": 324, "polity": { "id": 133, "name": "pk_sind_abbasid_fatimid", "long_name": "Sind - Abbasid-Fatimid Period", "start_year": 854, "end_year": 1193 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "Unknown.", "description": "Inferred as appointments to positions within the state made directly by the king, and were often people closely related to the King. §REF§Panhwar, M.H, An illustrated Historical Atlas of Soomra Kingdom of the Sindh p. 134§REF§" }, { "id": 325, "polity": { "id": 546, "name": "cn_five_dyn", "long_name": "Five Dynasties Period", "start_year": 906, "end_year": 970 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Somewhat difficult to evaluate. Examinations continued to take place, so there must have been an element of meritocracy to the promotion process, however important family connections may have been as well.\r\n\r\n“Our argument that success in examinations in this period depended more on family relations than on knowledge is supported by the texts themselves. Just before the beginning of our period, Ts'ui I-sun, a member of the famous gentry family which traces its influence back to the second century A.D., \"won the 'chin-shih' degree because of the status of his family\" (Chiu Wu-tai-shih 69 :4287d). And in connection with the examination of 955 it was ordered that the custom to give a degree to certain persons without any examination at all or to give a degree because of family status or to persons of respectable families which had been unsuccessful several times should be abolished (Chiu Wu-tai-shih II5 : 4347c). The emperor refused to give his consent to the papers of 12 of the 16 candidates which were recommended to him as good scholars. The wording of this order makes it clear that before 955 the general custom has been to promote any member of the ruling gentry either without an examination or with a sham examination.” §REF§(Eberhad 1951: 293) Eberhard, W. 1951. Remarks on the Bureaucracy in North China during the Tenth Century. Oriens 4(2): 280-299. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ACFTR6FZ/library§REF§" }, { "id": 326, "polity": { "id": 548, "name": "it_italy_k", "long_name": "Italian Kingdom Late Antiquity", "start_year": 476, "end_year": 489 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": null, "description": "The following quote refers to continuity between the late Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom under Theoderic. It seems reasonable to infer that the \"traditional structures of patronage and career options\" that Theoderic preserved were also present during Odovacer's interregnum. \"Appointment to offices within the palatine bureaucracy was generally bestowed upon members of the Roman aristocracy, which meant that traditional structures of patronage and career options remained largely intact.\"§REF§(Heydemann 2016: 25) Heydemann, G. 2016. The Ostrogothic Kingdom: Ideologies and Transitions. In Arnold, Bjornlie and Sessa (eds) A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy pp. 17-46. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZKWTCNSM/library§REF§" }, { "id": 327, "polity": { "id": 122, "name": "pk_kachi_urban_2", "long_name": "Kachi Plain - Urban Period II", "start_year": -2100, "end_year": -1800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "\"While the necessary reliance on archaeological evidence has ensured that many aspects of Harappan civilization, such as economic activities, settlements, industry, and biological anthropology, have been investigated as well as or better than those of literate civilizations, the absence of intelligible documentary material is a major handicap to understanding Harappan social and political organization and has put some aspects of Harappan life, such as the law, quite beyond cognizance.\" §REF§(McIntosh 2008: 245) Jane McIntosh. 2008. <i>The Ancient Indus Valley</i>. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO.§REF§" }, { "id": 328, "polity": { "id": 547, "name": "cn_wei_k", "long_name": "Wei Kingdom", "start_year": 220, "end_year": 265 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": null, "description": "\"Before the Northern Sung, the principal means of entry into the social and political elite was by official recommendation or kinship relations.\" §REF§(Elmam 2000, 5) Elman, B. 2000. A cultural history of civil examinations in late imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press.§REF§" }, { "id": 329, "polity": { "id": 250, "name": "cn_qin_emp", "long_name": "Qin Empire", "start_year": -338, "end_year": -207 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": "§REF§(Davidson 2011, 69)§REF§<br>In the military, key positions filled by aristocrats. However, junior officers were chosen on merit, and could advance to a high rank irrespective of birth.§REF§(Dupuy and Dupuy 2007, 88-89)§REF§" }, { "id": 330, "polity": { "id": 426, "name": "cn_southern_song_dyn", "long_name": "Southern Song", "start_year": 1127, "end_year": 1279 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"The administrative system of China consisted, from the third century B.C. until modern times, of a body of officials for the most part chosen for their merits or as the result of competitive examinations.\" §REF§(Gernet 1962, 62)§REF§" }, { "id": 331, "polity": { "id": 423, "name": "cn_eastern_zhou_warring_states", "long_name": "Eastern Zhou", "start_year": -475, "end_year": -256 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": "\"Around 445 BC, Wei started the new wave of self-strengthening reforms ... In conventional accounts, Wu Qi, a military general who arrived [in Chu] from Wei in 390 BC, introduced a self-strengthening program to eradicate the entrenched nobility and establish meritocracy. The reforms were so comprehensive that Wu Qi was much hated by the aristocrats. When the king died in 381 BC, Wu Qi was killed and the reforms were abandoned.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CSPZPNV5\">[Hui 2005]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 332, "polity": { "id": 506, "name": "gr_macedonian_emp", "long_name": "Macedonian Empire", "start_year": -330, "end_year": -312 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 333, "polity": { "id": 709, "name": "pt_portuguese_emp_2", "long_name": "Portuguese Empire - Early Modern", "start_year": 1640, "end_year": 1806 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": "\"The magistracies were attributed by nomination, issued directly by the king or a delegated official. Unlike with the clerk offices, which were granted for life, magistracies until the rank of desembargador, had a fixed term of three years and were served as long as it was the crown’s will. [...] At the end of a term, the Desembargo do Paço would hold an inquiry into the outgoing magistrate to evaluate his conduct and competence. Any subsequent promotion would depend on the result of this inquiry. The short duration of the term was thought to prevent corruption and an excessive association with local matters that would harm the practice of justice.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JFPUKVMF\">[Camarinhas 2013]</a> However, \"there was an unwritten rule that was strictly observed: each position should end with promotion to a more senior position. This resulted in the practice of consistent bureaucratic promotion.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JFPUKVMF\">[Camarinhas 2013]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 334, "polity": { "id": 535, "name": "ug_bunyoro_k_2", "long_name": "Bito Dynasty", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "Inferred from the fact that full-time specialised bureaucracy does not seem to have emerged in the broader Great Lakes region prior to the colonial era. For example, in Nkore, \"The royal court served as a judicial and political center, but not as a bureaucratic focal point. The Mugabe's chief minister, the Enganzi, was not a prime minister in the usual sense of leader of government business. He was merely the King's favorite. Neither was there a cabinet nor governmental bureaux [...]. No distinction between the royal and state treasury was made and the heads of local administrative units were not required to attend court or reside at the capital as in Buganda, for instance.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/D3FV7SKV\">[Steinhart 1978, p. 144]</a> In Rwanda: \"In this sort of government, administration was not yet institutionalized.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5J4MRHUB\">[Vansina 2004, p. 63]</a> In Burundi, the king seemingly entrusted administration mostly to close relatives and local chiefs: \"Ntare relied on his sons as administrators: he was strong enough to set up his sons, but not strong enough to incorporate these regions fully within central control. [...] During the late nineteenth century, under the reign of Mwezi Gisabo, a four-tiered system of administration emerged: a central area around Muramvya under the control of the king; an area under the administration of his sons or brothers most closely allied to the king; a broad swath further east and south administered by Batare chiefs, the descendants of Ntare; and another zone, covering the western and northwestern areas of the country, under the administration of others, not Baganwa (in fact, they were mostly Hutu authorities). [...] Administrative authorities in the east and south- east, often Batare (descendants of Ntare Rugamba), simply retained their administrative autonomy while acknowledging nominal central court ritual hegemony. Those in the northeast more characteristically undertook open revolt, often by those who sought to overthrow Mwezi.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/J5A6DM3P\">[Newbury 2001, pp. 283-284]</a> Moreover, it is curious that, despite the wealth of literature available on this polity, so far we have been unable to find mentions of a bureaucracy, which strongly suggests (without outright confirming) that it was simply not present at this time.", "description": null }, { "id": 335, "polity": { "id": 715, "name": "tz_east_africa_ia_1", "long_name": "Early East Africa Iron Age", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 499 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 336, "polity": { "id": 716, "name": "tz_early_tana_1", "long_name": "Early Tana 1", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 749 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 337, "polity": { "id": 717, "name": "tz_early_tana_2", "long_name": "Early Tana 2", "start_year": 750, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 338, "polity": { "id": 223, "name": "ma_almoravid_dyn", "long_name": "Almoravids", "start_year": 1035, "end_year": 1150 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 339, "polity": { "id": 284, "name": "hu_avar_khaganate", "long_name": "Avar Khaganate", "start_year": 586, "end_year": 822 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "no data.", "description": null }, { "id": 340, "polity": { "id": 226, "name": "ib_banu_ghaniya", "long_name": "Banu Ghaniya", "start_year": 1126, "end_year": 1227 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 341, "polity": { "id": 308, "name": "bg_bulgaria_early", "long_name": "Bulgaria - Early", "start_year": 681, "end_year": 864 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"In the middle of the ninth century, Bulgaria had already changed to a multiethnic kingdom. There is evidence for Greek and Slav commanders and artisans in high positions.\"§REF§(Ziemann 2007, 619) Daniel Ziemann. The rebellion of the nobles against the baptism of Khan Boris (865-866). Joachim Henning ed. 2007. Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin.§REF§" }, { "id": 342, "polity": { "id": 312, "name": "bg_bulgaria_medieval", "long_name": "Bulgaria - Middle", "start_year": 865, "end_year": 1018 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": null, "description": "\"In the middle of the ninth century, Bulgaria had already changed to a multiethnic kingdom. There is evidence for Greek and Slav commanders and artisans in high positions.\"§REF§(Ziemann 2007, 619) Daniel Ziemann. The rebellion of the nobles against the baptism of Khan Boris (865-866). Joachim Henning ed. 2007. Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans. Walter de Gruyter. Berlin.§REF§" }, { "id": 343, "polity": { "id": 400, "name": "in_chandela_k", "long_name": "Chandela Kingdom", "start_year": 950, "end_year": 1308 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": "\"According to Sukra, the king should look out for educated men and appoint them to offices suited to their education, and he should honour every year those who attained eminence in learning and the arts, and take measures for the advancement of these activities. No better instance of the practical application of these ideals in the early mediaeval period, can be found than that of the Candella kings. [...] That the kings patronised poets and other learned men is evident from the frequent references to ministers and other officials as Kavi, Balakavi, Kavindra, Kavicakravartin, etc. in the Candella inscriptions. The appointment of suitable men for suitable posts are recorded in the inscriptions, and will be discussed below.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ATJMGIDM\">[Bose 1956, p. 120]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 344, "polity": { "id": 246, "name": "cn_chu_dyn_spring_autumn", "long_name": "Chu Kingdom - Spring and Autumn Period", "start_year": -740, "end_year": -489 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": "\"In respect to selecting officials, the appointment of capable and talented people emerged as a trend in the Spring and Autumn Period. ... The State of Chu became the strongest hegemony in the Central Plains when Duke Zhuang of Chu extended his dominion to the Yellow River with the assistance of a commoner. ... Although this posed a challenge to the hereditary system, it was not to form a new institutionalized system of selecting officials.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/73I9XGBD\">[Zhang 2015, pp. 143-144]</a> \"During the Spring and Autumn Period, the powerful states such as Qin and Chu set up a new administrative system of provinces and counties in each of the places they conquered through wars of annexation. In general, counties were based in the center of the state, while provinces were based in the outlying areas. The governorships of the provinces and counties were no longer hereditary positions. Rather governors were appointed and dismissed directly by the kings or lords. These governors in the provinces and counties comprised the first bureaucracy in Chinese history.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/73I9XGBD\">[Zhang 2015, p. 144]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 345, "polity": { "id": 249, "name": "cn_chu_k_warring_states", "long_name": "Chu Kingdom - Warring States Period", "start_year": -488, "end_year": -223 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": "\"Around 445 BC, Wei started the new wave of self-strengthening reforms ... In conventional accounts, Wu Qi, a military general who arrived [in Chu] from Wei in 390 BC, introduced a self-strengthening program to eradicate the entrenched nobility and establish meritocracy. The reforms were so comprehensive that Wu Qi was much hated by the aristocrats. When the king died in 381 BC, Wu Qi was killed and the reforms were abandoned.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CSPZPNV5\">[Hui 2005]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 346, "polity": { "id": 715, "name": "tz_east_africa_ia_1", "long_name": "Early East Africa Iron Age", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 499 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "absent", "comment": "Likely no centralisation, and therefore also no bureaucracy; dispersed network of homesteads instead. \"[A]rchaeology[...] suggests these early communities probably consisted of dispersed networks of homesteads, rather than centralised societies (Reid 1994/5; Van Grunderbeek et al. 1983).\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZBIZGHGA\">[Ashley 2010, p. 146]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 347, "polity": { "id": 54, "name": "pa_cocle_1", "long_name": "Early Greater Coclé", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "UND", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "uncoded", "comment": "For the considerably later precontact period, Helms has argued that 'Although the ethnohistoric data are very scanty, some degree of \"internal\" administrative associations and responsibilities surely existed between the commoner population of a given territory or \"province\" and the elite cabras, sacos and/or quevis of that territory, who at the very least accepted generalized stewardship of the overall well-being, socially and ideologically, of the population of a given ancestral territory'. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZBCIE7GI\">[Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56]</a> She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZBCIE7GI\">[Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56]</a> but does not speculate on whether they were full-time. The evidence is therefore not strong enough to justify coding full-time specialist bureaucrats present for the precontact period, and we know even less about this early period of Greater Coclé development (200-700 CE). Panamanian societies before Spanish contact produced no written records, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IPHPU92K\">[Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14]</a> so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.", "description": "" }, { "id": 348, "polity": { "id": 716, "name": "tz_early_tana_1", "long_name": "Early Tana 1", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 749 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "\"A central hierarchy or ruling strata to control social relations and enforce political order would be necessary to co-ordinate the market workforce and other important functional relations of the site. The existence of an administration can be inferred firstly from the general organisation. The sheer scale of economic activities strongly suggests that such a central paramount authority was established. Secondly, the higher returns that spilled out from the wealth in circulation and increase in the output from craft production and transportation must have provided adequate stimuli for wealthy and elite groups to exercise their control over these sectors and consequently promote the growth of social hierarchy and differentiation.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GGM3RG7F\">[Juma 2004]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 349, "polity": { "id": 717, "name": "tz_early_tana_2", "long_name": "Early Tana 2", "start_year": 750, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "\"The noticeable decline in the import and internal output of this period set against the expansion of the site and population is an expression of increased complexity that may imply a division of labour that relocated the centres for craftwork to elsewhere, away from the Unguja Ukuu site as the public core area for political functions, administration and defence. This must have overtly distinguished Unguja Ukuu as a seat of urban conduct with an aggregation of buildings, groups of immigrants bringing in the old coinage, a market for subsistence resources from the periphery, and providing services to the population within the site territory and beyond.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GGM3RG7F\">[Juma 2004]</a>", "description": null }, { "id": 350, "polity": { "id": 218, "name": "ma_idrisid_dyn", "long_name": "Idrisids", "start_year": 789, "end_year": 917 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "unknown", "comment": "EMPTY_COMMENT", "description": null }, { "id": 351, "polity": { "id": 407, "name": "in_kakatiya_dyn", "long_name": "Kakatiya Dynasty", "start_year": 1175, "end_year": 1324 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Merit_promotion", "merit_promotion": "present", "comment": "\"But unlike mahāsāmanta or mahāmaṇḍalēśvara, which also indicated rank, nowhere in the Kakatiya corpus is the title mahāpradhāni transmitted hereditarily from father to son. Therefore mahāpradhāni must have been an honorary status granted by an overlord to valued individual subordinates of the officer category.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/R67IJ9XP\">[Talbot 2001, p. 157]</a>", "description": null } ] }