Sitting Together: Local Councils and the Politics of Election in the County of Vidin

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the organizational structure of a key provincial administrative unit, the county (liva or sancak) and the politics of administering this unit. It includes a general summary of its organizational structure, including the offices within Vidin County and people associated with those offices. By exploring the connection between the offices and the people who occupy them, the chapter defines the judicio-administrative sphere of provincial governance in Vidin: the space occupied by people and offices associated with provincial judiciary and administration. The main argument is that counties were key units of provincial administration and local notables dominated their councils, which were central to the larger provincial judicio-administrative sphere. The chapter provides a summary of how the county and its key judiciary and administrative councils were structured by two key regulations (issued in 1864 and 1871), relates these councils to the earlier provincial councils and explains how he election and appointment of council members took place. The election process in the local judicio-administrative sphere was a charged process that was impossible to untangle from the provincial power dynamics. Local notables maintained their prominence by consistently remaining as members of this judicio-administrative sphere, which was key to Ottoman governance.