There has been a tendency to neglect the political life of Asia, in favour of religious and aesthetic considerations. The myth of the ‘changeless East’ dies hard. Few people are aware that the earliest legislation for the rights of the common man go back to the Sumerians and that outlines for a social contract were drawn up by Indian Buddhists two thousand years before Locke and Rousseau. First published in 1985, Patterns of Kingship and Authority in Traditional Asia provides an excellent survey of traditional Asian ideas of government, from the earliest kingdoms of the Sumerians and the Egyptians to the time when Western influence first made itself felt. Each chapter is written by a specialist on a particular country or region of Asia, who seeks to identify some of the essential features of its traditional royal or imperial authority. Particularly fascinating is the way in which traditional institutions continue to have a vital influence upon Asian countries. The serious reader will obtain a clear outline of traditional Asian ideas and systems of government and will indirectly acquire a deeper understanding of other aspects of Asian civilisations.

The engagingly-written chapters in this volume deal with paradigms of the pre-modern Southeast Asian state, the crime of le se majesty in Thai history, Marxist historical writing, the gendering of the Thai past, and cultural nationalism in the twentieth century.

“The Palgrave Handbook of Political Norms in Southeast Asia offers a fresh and insightful analysis of the dynamics of political change ongoing in the region. The collection brings together a set of highly expert authors from inside and outside the region, who offer a deep understanding of the region’s history and politics, providing a stimulating and colourful take on the region’s contemporary political movements. The Handbook will be invaluable to both longstanding observers of the region and to newcomers seeking to understand both the diversity and complexity of Southeast Asian politics, and its regional distinctiveness.” —Professor Caroline Hughes, University of Notre Dame, U.S.A “A sophisticated and compelling argument about how to conceive and explain political norms and dynamics. Insights from various social sciences expose complex power relationships involving competing interests promoting norms within, across, and in articulation with, Southeast Asia. Conflicts and contradictions are thus brought out of shadows and into light, posing a formidable theoretical challenge to influential orthodoxies. An outstanding collection.” —Emeritus Professor Garry Rodan, Murdoch University, Australia This open access handbook aims to constitute a reference point on political norm dynamics in Southeast Asia, by bringing together the array of normative repertoires that frame the possibilities for citizens to participate in, set agendas for, make decisions in, and contest, not only electoral and institutional politics but also informal and imaginary political spaces. It sheds light on intersecting political and social transformations and their consequences from the vantage point of political norms. While chapters lay out and analyse how political norms across Southeast Asia have been shaped in successive historical phases, the core of the handbook addresses current dynamics involved in defining and transforming political norms. Gabriel Facal is Deputy Director of the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC), Bangkok, Thailand. Elsa Lafaye de Micheaux is Professor in Political Economy at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France. Astrid Norén-Nilsson is a Senior Lecturer in the Study of Contemporary Southeast Asia at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden.

The book examines major developments and recent trends in the historiography of the Mughal Empire and post-Mughal state systems. The aim is to integrate the research of the past twenty to thirty years in a theoretical framework in order to achieve a better understanding of the transition period of the late 17th and early 18th century in India. The book outlines organizational structures and power relationships in the Mughal Empire and accounts for the redistribution of power on the Indian subcontinent in the context of long-term stuctural change in the Indian Ocean region. Rather than signalling social stagnation and decay, the decline of the imperial order and the transformation of the political system appear to reflect a process in which the state dynamically adjusted to changes in Indian society and economy. By integrating new social groups and incorporating various new technical means of resources mangagement, the state significantly enhanced its organizational power and its capacity for social control.

The third edition lists 50,000 titles that form the foundation of an undergraduate library's collection. This volume provides an index to the other five books in the set.