Effective governance is challenging when the rulers come from a dominant minority. This paper examines a bureaucratic arrangement with which a million Manchus ruled over 100 million Han Chinese for two and half centuries in the Qing dynasty: the Manchu-Han duos, that is, Han elites were appointed to handle daily administrative issues, on top of whom Manchu superiors were assigned for oversight. Using extreme weather as instruments, we find that more frequent local insurgency – a proxy of governance complexity – led to higher likelihood of such cross-ethnic duos. This link between governance complexity and cross-ethnic duo arrangement is stronger where the region was farther away from the capital, especially where the initial resistance against Manchu rule was stronger, and when the governors began to have control over local armies. Finally, the Manchu-Han duos were associated with better local economic development, more efficient policy execution, and enhanced recognition of imperial authority.
Chen Shuo