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Peasants, bandits, and state intervention: The consolidation of authority in the Ottoman Balkans and Southern Italy
Author(s) -
Cayli Baris
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/joac.12228
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , consolidation (business) , state (computer science) , politics , ottoman empire , political authority , political science , state security , political economy , law , state building , state formation , public administration , sociology , economics , psychology , accounting , algorithm , psychiatry , computer science
This paper explores the role of bandits and state intervention in the Ottoman Balkans and Southern Italy in the 19th century by using archival documents. I argue that the states may react similarly and radically when their authority is challenged in the periphery. The Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy developed the same forms of state intervention to fight against the bandits, even though these two states had fundamentally different political, cultural, and socio‐legal structures. I present three different forms of state intervention: (i) victim‐centred state intervention; (ii) security‐centred state intervention; and (iii) authority‐centred state intervention. These three forms consolidated the state's authority while making the two states both fragile and dependent on other social agencies in the long term. I further claim that consolidation of the state's authority manifests the paradox of state intervention and creates more vulnerabilities in traumatic geographies.