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To be fair, the Mongol empire did end up disintegrating in a few generations. Kublai Khan was the de jure ruler of a united empire, but in practice the western
by science4sail 2y ago
To be fair, the Mongol empire did end up disintegrating in a few generations. Kublai Khan was the de jure ruler of a united empire, but in practice the western periphery of the empire was drifting away.
> If you want to keep the empire unified, you need a civilian government and civilian institutions to keep the military under control.
But then you run into another classic political science problem: how do civilian institutions keep the military under control? Why can't the military simply shoot the civilians and institute a junta?
- jltsiren 2y agoThe usual answer is legitimacy. The military can't seize power, if it's not loyal to its commanders. If people serve in the military due to personal loyalty and the promise of glory and loot, the military is a threat to the society. But institutions can create other purposes to serve, and then military commanders only have power if their actions are consistent with those purposes.
- ffgjgf1 2y agoBut there wasn’t any clear boundary between the civil and military power. If we must discuss it in these terms “the military” had seized the power from the very beginning of the empire and never let it go.