1: Introduction to the Transaction Edition; 1: Preface to the First Paperback Edition; 1: Preface; One: Conditions of Development of the Political Systems of the Historical Bureaucratic Empires; 1: The Historical Bureaucratic Polities The Setting and the Problem; 2: The Fundamental Characteristics of the Political Systems and the Social Conditions of Their Development Basic Hypotheses; 3: The Economic Structure of the Historical Bureaucratic Societies; 4: Religious and Cultural Organization and Orientation; 5: Social Organization and Stratification; 6: The Social Conditions and the Institutionalization of the Political Systems; Two: Conditions of Perpetuation of the Political Systems of the Historical Bureaucratic Empires; 7: The Policies of the Rulers; 8: The Political Orientations and Activities of the Major Groups and Strata; 9: The Social Determinants of the Political Processes A Comparative Analysis; 10: The Place of the Bureaucracy in the Political Process; 11: The Place of the Political Process in the Social Structures of the Centralized Empires; 12: Processes of Change in the Political Systems; 13: Conclusions

Winner of the prestigious MacIver Award when it was first published, this remains a towering work of modern political sociology, especially of macrosociology. Its main objective is comparative analysis of political commonalities found in different societies, both historical and present. The book seeks to find some pattern or laws in the structure and development of such systems. The imaginative use of data helps to bring order into what might otherwise be considered a speculative volume.
The purpose of The Political Systems of Empires is to apply sociological concepts to the analysis of historical societies through the comparative analysis of a special type of political system. This analysis does not purport to be historical or descriptive. Its main objective is comparative analysis of political commonalities found in different societies. The book seeks to find some pattern or laws in the structure and development of such systems.