Bureaucratic inscription gave the state predictive power over deserters

Evidence

On a deeper level, then, this chapter has argued that the significance of conscription in Mehmed Ali’s army exceeds the sheer weight of the number of those gathered or its impact on the demographic composition of the countryside. Conscription, the population’s aversion and reaction to it, and the government’s attempts to counteract this resistance formed the impetus for the implementation in Egypt of a radically different system of controlling and governing the country. Resorting to physical force as represented by the conscription gang was no longer thought effective in tapping the country’s human resources. Gradually a shift to more subtle, hidden techniques of power took place, represented by the tezkere, the register, and ultimately the census. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 490 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: State power depends on borrowing the bodies of its subjects — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 695; A bureaucracy was essential for maintaining power in the Ottoman Empire. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1104; State dependence on soldiers’ bodies secured social bargaining power (+2 more)

Related

• Conscription transformed the relation between Egyptian government and governed (similarity 0.86)
• Peasant resistance to conscription catalyzed a new regime of state control (similarity 0.85)
• Peasant resistance to conscription drove Egypt’s shift toward administrative power (similarity 0.85)
• Conscription gave the Egyptian state power over peasants that Ottoman and Mamluk rulers lacked (similarity 0.84)
• Sustaining a 130,000-man army required state power unprecedented in Egyptian history (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• State dependence on soldiers’ bodies secured social bargaining power #corroborates (0.60)
• Conscription transformed the relation between Egyptian government and governed #exemplifies (0.60)
• Peasant resistance to conscription catalyzed a new regime of state control #expands (0.55) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 490
• A bureaucracy was essential for maintaining power in the Ottoman Empire. #expands (0.50) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1104