I am currently participating in an online course that discusses war and its relationship with society. The instructor asserted that the ability to collect taxes efficiently is the best indicator of a strong centralized authority. You have discussed the power of the law and how monarchs in ASOIAF and real life have used the law to strengthen the central authority.
Don’t both depend on the authority having a monopoly on violence? Your thoughts?
Well, monopoly on violence might also depend on your ability to collect taxes efficiently, in so far as much as a standing army needs to be paid regularly. So both factors move in the same direction – if your tax system breaks down, it becomes harder to keep armies in the fall; if tax receipts are up, the quality and quantity of soldiers in your army improve.
Now, judicial power ultimately does require a monopoly on violence, in the sense that if someone refuses to surrender to the constables, that’s a challenge to royal authority that ultimately has to be answered with soldiers. But it’s also a means of legitimizing and helping to establish monopolies on violence – enforcing the law against powerful noblemen who might otherwise challenge your rule is a good way to head those challenges off before they become rebellions, etc.
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