Social Heterogeneity,Conflict Threats,State Power-Structure and Government Size—A Comparative Institutional Analysis from Historical Developments of China and Japan
This paper explores the impact of social heterogeneity and conflict threats on the size of government.Social heterogeneity,as an embedded layer in in-stitutional development,manifests in the actual allocation of power,driving the oc-currence of internal conflict threats within society and influencing the balance in the design of national institutions,specifically reflected in the choice of the number and size of governments.Based on the logic framework of power distribution and institu-tional transition in institutional economics and the theoretical model of regional gov-ernment formation,a comparative historical institutional analysis of Ming and Qing China and Edo Japan is conducted.We demonstrate that social heterogeneity and conflict threats lead countries to choose to establish a greater number of smaller gov-ernments.The examination of the civil service examination system and bureaucratic system reveals that social heterogeneity within the Chinese state is lower,whereas under the feudal system in Japan,there is greater social heterogeneity among re-gions,coupled with a greater internal conflict threat.This results in structural differ-ences in the traditional societal government organizations of China and Japan.This study provides a theoretical explanation and historical evidence for understanding in-stitutional transitions and the formation of governance patterns,offering a new direc-tion for understanding contemporary issues in national governance.
social heterogeneityconflict threatsgovernment sizeMing-Qing ChinaTokugawa Japan
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