Our results highlight the importance of distinguishing state-building from state strength. Greater state capacity may stabilize society, but the building process itself can disrupt local social structures and be contested for decades.

👉Broadstreet post: www.broadstreet.blog/p/when-state...

We find that new horse-post relays caused more local rebellions in subsequent decades. This was due to the material consequences of state penetration, as the horse post spurred rebellions against agents with coercive powers to enforce order: the military, the police, and the judiciary.

We use a staggered DiD design at the parish level that compares changes in rebellion in parishes that received a horse-post relay to nearby parishes that would later receive one. We argue that the local configuration of relays between regional nodes was plausibly exogenous.

We test this hypothesis by combining archival data on the horse-post relay network over the eighteenth century from the Liste des Postes and a database of 6,000 rebellions in pre-Revolutionary France from the Jean Nicolas survey.
👉 On the JN survey : doi.org/10.46298/dc....

This system was central to the monarchy’s infrastructural capacity, strengthening its ability to penetrate society—enforce taxes, the rule of law, and conscription. It also crowded out private interests and activities, potentially generating resentment and resistance.

The monarchy’s communication network was the horse-post: a series of relays every 10–15km where state messengers could lodge & get fresh horses for faster travel. On these roads, the state held a monopoly over the gallop, horse rentals, and night travel. It expanded throughout the 18th century

Publication brought lots of unexpected surprises: reviews in places like @thenewyorker.bsky.social & @wsj.com, podcasts, and plenty of rich conversations on everything from US land grabbing in Greenland to the housing crisis & property rights on the moon. Here's to a 2026 that measures up!

#3: Land Displacement & the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians with @mikealbertus.bsky.social