Kings or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule

by Reinhard Bendix

Book Overview

"It is difficult to decide which is the more impressive: the authority and control with which Mr. Bendix writes of the traditions, the institutions, and the technological and social developments of cultures as diverse as the British, French, German, Russian, and Japanese, or the skill with which he weaves his separate stories into a persuasive scenario of the modern revolution. A remarkable achievement."--Gordon A. Craig, Stanford University

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520023021
• ISBN13: 9780520023024
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 692 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Unusual subject

As far as I know, there are not many books (i) dealing with monarchy (ii) with a comparative framework (iii) including not only Europe but also other parts of the world and (iv) readable enough for the non-scholarly public. In that sense, Bendix's work seems to me interesting enough to recommend it, in particular those parts dealing with Russia and Japan. Other books that I would recommend would be "State and status" by Samuel Clark; "Myths of Power. Norbert Elias and the Early Modern European Court " by Jeroen Duindam; "Monarchy, Aristocracy, and the State in Europe, 1300-1800" by Hillay Zmora; "Nobilities in Transition 1550-1700: Courtiers and Rebels in Britain and Europe" by Ronald G. Asch; and "The Persistence of the Ancient Regime" by Arno J. Mayer.

Democracy as a Social Process

This book is an exceptionally useful introduction to history as a rigorous philosophical pursuit. Most students of history, of course, have a natural enthusiasm for the subject; but when trying use historical research for understanding something else, one has to grasp the nexus of history and sociology. This book deals specifically with the evolution of the European and East Asian state; it specifically addresses the motivations of the elites and the decisions they took that led to the development of democracy (or not). The nations examined include Japan, Germany, Russia, England, and France. Bendix focuses his inquiry into the formation of interested groups in each country, and how their power became critical to the survival of the regime. Hence, well before the English Revolution (1642-1660), the urban commoners had considerable strength arising from their role in the sea and coastal trade. This was gradually translated into explicit political power. By contrast, in Russia, the urban commerce unambiguously enhanced the power and incentive of the landlords to exploit the peasants; it tended to fragment Russia economically, while preserving a conservative hierarchy. Bendix distinguishes between the formation of a state through the development of kingly authority; and the later phase of national development, during which the people acquire decisive powers. The latter occurred mainly because of the former: the king was compelled to mobilize his subjects, usually against the second tier of aristocracy. Government is bureaucratized in order to collect revenues and wage war; but bureaucratization imposes constraints on the kingly power, since the king can do nothing without an educated staff, and the staff risks loss of confidence if it affronts the main economic elites. Bendix expands on these themes with discussions of price revolutions, peculiar trends in industry and land tenure, dynastic traits, and regional philosophies of rulership. In so doing, he sought to bind together what was common to rulership among his case studies, so that different outcomes could be linked rigorously to what was genuinely peculiar to each country. The development of political rights arises from the technical diffusion of power from the king to technician-bureaucrat to economic elite to commoner. The development of democracy in all cases comes long after this, and remains tentative. This much is not exceptional; several textbooks on "Western" history contain almost as much. What distinguishes this book and makes it so worthwhile is, firstly, that it outlines rival currents of thought on political transitions; and it supplies Bendix's extraordinarily insightful discussions on the basic social process underway. This is crucial to fleshing in what, in lesser hands, might be a wearily and misleadingly mechanistic outline of history.

Unusual subject

As far as I know, there are not many books (i) dealing with monarchy (ii) with a comparative framework (iii) including not only Europe but also other parts of the world and (iv) readable enough for the non-scholarly public. In that sense, Bendix's work seems to me interesting enough to recommend it, in particular those parts dealing with Russia and Japan. Other books that I would recommend would be "State and status" by Samuel Clark; "Myths of Power. Norbert Elias and the Early Modern European Court " by Jeroen Duindam; "Monarchy, Aristocracy, and the State in Europe, 1300-1800" by Hillay Zmora; "Nobilities in Transition 1550-1700: Courtiers and Rebels in Britain and Europe" by Ronald G. Asch; and "The Persistence of the Ancient Regime" by Arno J. Mayer.