Section: Social Complexity

Subsection: Bureaucracy characteristics

Full Time Bureaucrat

full-time bureaucrats refer to full-time administrative specialists. code this absent if administrative duties are performed by generalists such as chiefs and subchiefs. also code it absent if state officials perform multiple functions, e.g. combining administrative tasks with military duties. note that this variable shouldn't be coded 'present' only on the basis of the presence of specialized government buildings; there must be some additional evidence of functional specialization in government. (See here)

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Variable	Definition
Polity	The Seshat Polity ID
Year(s)	The years for which we have the data. [negative = BCE]
Tag	[Evidenced, Disputed, Suspected, Inferred, Unknown]
Verified	A Seshat Expert has approved this piece of data.

Variable	Definition
full_time_bureaucrat	The absence or presence of full time bureaucrat for a polity.

Actual Data:

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#	Polity	Year(s)	Full Time Bureaucrat	Description	Edit
31	(Early Tana 1)	Full Year Range of Early Tana 1 is assumed. [500, 749]	present	EMPTY_COMMENT
32	(Early Greater Coclé)	Full Year Range of Early Greater Coclé is assumed. [200, 700]	absent	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'. [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] 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, [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.
33	(Duchy of Aquitaine I)	Full Year Range of Duchy of Aquitaine I is assumed. [602, 768]	present	Full-time specialists
34	(Early East Africa Iron Age)	Full Year Range of Early East Africa Iron Age is assumed. [200, 499]	absent	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)." [Ashley 2010, p. 146]
35	(Eastern Zhou)	Full Year Range of Eastern Zhou is assumed. [-475, -256]	present	"Around 445 BC, Wei started the new wave of self-strengthening reforms by systematizing preexisting practices and introducing innovative institutions." [Hui 2005, p. 85] "In short, during Qin's early ascendance, all other great powers introduced various elements of self-strengthening reforms such as the mass army, national taxation, household registration, and hierarchical administration." [Hui 2005, p. 86]
36	(Crimean Khanate)	Full Year Range of Crimean Khanate is assumed. [1440, 1783]	present	None
37	(Chu Kingdom - Warring States Period)	Full Year Range of Chu Kingdom - Warring States Period is assumed. [-488, -223]	present	"Around 445 BC, Wei started the new wave of self-strengthening reforms by systematizing preexisting practices and introducing innovative institutions." [Hui 2005, p. 85] "In short, during Qin's early ascendance, all other great powers introduced various elements of self-strengthening reforms such as the mass army, national taxation, household registration, and hierarchical administration." [Hui 2005, p. 86]
38	(Early East Africa Iron Age)	Full Year Range of Early East Africa Iron Age is assumed. [200, 499]	absent	EMPTY_COMMENT
39	(Banu Ghaniya)	Full Year Range of Banu Ghaniya is assumed. [1126, 1227]	present	None
40	(Middle Greater Coclé)	Full Year Range of Middle Greater Coclé is assumed. [700, 1000]	absent	For the 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'. [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] She believes cabras, the lowest-ranked elites, would have served as 'local administrators', [Helms_Brumfiel_Fox 1994, p. 56] 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 earlier period (700-1000 CE). Panamanian societies before Spanish contact produced no written records, [Mendizábal_Archibold 2004, p. 14] so it is not clear how such administrators would perform their duties.

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