Qin and Inca Empire’s use of Social Controls and Social Policy

Qin and Inca Empire’s use of Social Controls

and Social Policy Robert Christian Taylor

November 29, 2011

Qin and Inca Empire‟s use of Social Controls and Social Policy Robert C. Taylor

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Qin and Inca Empire’s use of Social Controls and Social Policy

The Qin and the Inca both used a variety of social controls and social policies to

manage their empires. For example, the Qin Empire was famous for using strict laws to

control the population, punishing even the lightest infractions severely. Similarly, the

Inca Empire was famous for superb methods of societal organization and economic

control with an imperial grandeur reported to rival that of Rome. At the height of these

two empires, they both controlled massive amounts of land and subsequently had to

govern the large number of people inhabiting their conquered land. Since both empires

had the goal of expansion, they both employed a variety of social controls to ensure

optimum societal functioning to fuel the empire‟s lust for more land and power.

Additionally, each empire had to design social policies to placate the population to ensure

civil obedience so that the needs of the state were fulfilled. The Qin and the Inca Empire

made use of a variety of similar social controls and social policies with some difference

in the application of the controls and policies.

First, the Qin and the Inca Empire designed and applied law to control their

empires. In both empires the law prescribed brutal punishment ranging from dropping

rocks on an offender's back to slicing a person into two. However, the Qin Empire made

use of law as a social control much more formally then did the Inca Empire. The Qin

Empire‟s laws prescribed punishments for almost every activity and left little room for

alternative interpretations of the law.1 In fact, the law system of the Qin Empire was

formalized to such an extent that even the ruler was subjected to the hierarchal system

used to reward individuals who served the state well in the military. According to Lewis,

1Mark Edward Lewis, The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han (United States: The Belknap Press of

Harvard University Press, 2007), 49.


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“Even members of the royal family depended on merit earned through military service to

maintain their elite status.”2 Consequently, the loyalty of the Qin emperor‟s subjects was

guaranteed by making them believe in the merit of the social hierarchy and ensuring their

continued faithful service in the Qin army. However, while the Qin Empire did use

formal law more extensively, the Inca Empire did make use of law as well using it mostly

to govern the day to day operations of the empire such as settling disputes or to prevent

corruption by writing the law such that, according to Malpass, “the higher the status of

the individual, the more severe the punishment for the crime.”3 Indeed, in the Inca

Empire the law could have never been formalized to such an extent as the law of the Qin

Empire because the Inca Empire did not possess a written language.4

Second, the Qin and the Inca Empire used terror to control their population. In the

Qin Empire, the use of terror was sanctioned and implemented as part of the law. To hold

the population in check, the Qin Empire organized peasants into groups of five and ten,

holding every member of the group responsible for any crimes committed by any of the

other individuals. Essentially, this encouraged submission to the state and prevented

crime as every member of the group would spy on each other in the fear of missing the

committing of a crime and receiving the subsequent punishment.5 In contrast to the Qin

Empire, the Inca Empire made use of terror in a much more grand way: the moving and

redistributing of the rebellious people throughout the empire.6 If the Inca Empire had

problems governing a population because the population was in constant rebellion, the

2 Mark Edward Lewis, The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han (United States: The Belknap Press of

Harvard University Press, 2007), 33. 3 Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), 35.

4 Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, The History of the Incas, trans. Brian S. Bauer and Vania Smith (United

States: University of Texas Press, 2007), 57. 5 Mark Edward Lewis, The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han (United States: The Belknap Press of

Harvard University Press, 2007), 30. 6 Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), xvii.


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Inca Empire would move the population to new locations and would mix the offending

population with groups more loyal to the Inca Empire. The end result would be the

creation of an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty as the rebellious population would

find themselves in an unfamiliar land, with unfamiliar people who they could not trust.

This atmosphere of terror would then effectively diminish or eliminate the troublesome

population ability to organize into a rebellious state.7 Also, short term tensions between

the groups of relocated people, and the existing population would be further exploited by

the Inca Empire to create disunity, terror, and further diminish the relocated people as

well as the existing population‟s ability to create war. Subsequently, this would lead to

the further stabilization of the Inca Empire.8

Third, the Inca Empire and the Qin Empire made use of economic policy designed

to control the behavior of their populations. These economic policies were both used to

fulfill the needs of the empire‟s war machine, and they were used to subdue the

population into submission. Indeed, the Qin Empire‟s economic policy was designed to

keep peasants in constant labor and subsequently was backed up by the law which called

for individuals found idle to be taken up as slaves by the state.9 Another example, the

book of legalism, according to Lewis, expressed “The effective ruler gets the people to

„forget their lived for the sake of their superior‟ and make them „delight in war.‟”10

This

ideal, expressed in the legalist book, underlies the Qin Empire‟s policy of overworking

the population into submission. Like the Qin Empire, the Inca Empire too made use of

7 Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), xxvi.

8 Charles C. Mann, 1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus (United States: Vintage Books,

2006), 81. 9 Mark Edward Lewis, The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han (United States: The Belknap Press of

Harvard University Press, 2007), 32. 10

Mark Edward Lewis, The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han (United States: The Belknap Press of



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much of the same policies as the Inca Empire‟s war machine placed a huge demand on

the state necessitating the mass cultivation of agriculture. Additionally like the Qin

Empire, the Inca Empire did not like to see its population idle. So, when no productive

labor was needed by the state the worker would be directed to undertake worthless

economic activities designed solely to occupy the worker‟s time discouraging

discontent.11

In both empires, the end result was that individuals did not sit idle but

instead produced agriculture and other goods that were needed to satisfy the expenses of

the state‟s war machine. As an added benefit, the empires pacified their population by

overworking the peasants making them less likely to lash out.

Fourth, the Qin Empire and the Inca Empire made use of social policy designed

to create compliance in the population and eliminate cultural differences leading to the

promotion of a uniform cultural identity. This policy was used much more extensively in

the Inca Empire because, in China, the culture was much more uniform when compared

to the cultures in the Andes due to Zhou influence on the aristocracy of the Chinese

states.12

Still, when it came to the common worker, there existed regional variations

which the Qin Empire was known for eliminating by imposing their ideology and their

law system on their conquered subjects.13

However, the Qin Empire never needed to

formulate extensive policies for cultural control rivaling those of the Inca Empire

because, when compared to the cultural environment of the Inca Empire, the culture

environment of the Qin Empire was already quite uniform. Therefore, the Inca Empire

11

Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), 52. 12


Harvard University Press, 2007), 11 13




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had to engage in a variety of social policies to assimilate the many groups in the Andes.14

One example of a policy the Inca Empire used was the relocation of groups throughout

the empire. This relocation was executed with the goal creating a uniform culture by

stamping out cultural differences and eliminating ethnic clashes by mixing cultural

groups.15

Another example, the Inca spread their language throughout their empire, first

forcing the nobility to learn the language, and then overtime introducing the native

population to the Inca language.16

In the end, these policies were successful as much of

the Andean region today shares a similar culture and the Inca‟s language can still be

heard.17

Lastly, the Qin Empire and the Inca Empire made use of effective social

organization to control the population. Both the Qin and the Inca divided their empire

into units for easy administration. Notably, the Inca went much further then the Qin,

dividing their empire on the basis of a decimal system where local rulers would control

20,000 households by overseeing two men who each managed 10,000 households. This

subdivision of control where each ruler oversaw men who were in charge of other men

would18

continue all the way down to the final man who would oversee the operation of

100 households.19

The Inca Empire made use of this type of subdivision to effectively

rule the vast number of different ethnic groups throughout the empire because this

subdivision allowed the Inca to place local rulers in control over their own population

14

Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), xxviii-xxix. 15

Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), xxix. 16

Charles C. Mann, 1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus (United States: Vintage

Books, 2006), 71. 17

Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), xxix. 18

Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), 32. 19

Michale A. Malpass, Daily Life in the Inca Empire (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 1996), 34-35.


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further ensuring the regions loyalty to the Inca Empire. However, while the Qin method

of organization was not as grand as the Inca‟s method of organization, the Qin did

organize their population. The Qin Empire organized their population into groups of five

and ten who would oversee each other and keep each other in check.20

The Qin Empire

made use of this organizational strategy because the system tended to keep its self in

balance aided by the formalization and accessibility of the laws and the added incentive

of harsh punishment to all members of the group if the crime went unreported. Also,

because the Qin Empire had access to a uniform culture already, the Qin Empire could

trust the population and predict the population‟s behavior with more certainty then the

Inca Empire because the culture of the Qin Empire was quite uniform.

To conclude, both the Qin Empire and the Inca Empire made use of a variety of

social controls and social policies. Interestingly, despite the difference in place and time,

the controls and policies used by both empires were very similar. As mentioned, both the

Qin Empire and the Inca Empire made use of similar laws, similar strategies to placate

the population, and similar policies designed to stomp out cultural differences. In fact,

most of the difference between the controls and policies used lied not in their purpose but

in their implementation as each empire had to tailor policies which would most fit the

circumstances of the time. Each empire had to navigate different cultural environments

and had to figure out how to successfully resolve any problems arising out of those social

environments. Consequently, this led to the variations between the two empires as each

empire had to use strategies which it deemed most appropriate for success as there was

and still is no perfect answer for properly controlling and directing a population. Thus, it

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is no surprise that when the difference in implementation is accounted for, and the effects

of different cultural environments normalized, the Qin Empire and Inca Empire‟s use and

purpose of policies and controls were much more similar then different.


9

Calhoun, Craig. “social control.” In Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford University

Press 2002.

http://www.oxfordreference.com.db07.linccweb.org/views/ENTRY.html?subview=M

ain&entry=t104.e1544

Gamboa, Pedro Sarmiento de. The History of the Incas. Translated by Brian S. Bauer and

Vania Smith. United States: University of Texas Press, 2007.

Lewis, Mark Edward. The Early Chinese Empires Qin and Han. United States: The

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.

Malpass, Michale A. Daily Life in the Inca Empire. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood,

1996.

Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. United

States: Vintage Books, 2006.

Morton, Scott W. China: its History and Culture. United States: McGraw-Hill, 1995.

Scott, John and Gordon Marshall. “social control.” In a Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford

University Press, 2009.

http://www.oxfordreference.com.db07.linccweb.org/views/ENTRY.html?subview=M

ain&entry=t88.e2120.

Wood, Francis. China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors. United States:

Profile Books Ltd, 2008.


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