Includes bibliographical references and index.

part I: Before the state. The necessity of politics -- The state of nature -- The tyranny of cousins -- Tribal societies : property, justice, war -- The coming of the leviathan -- part II: State building. Chinese tribalism -- War and the rise of the Chinese state -- The great Han system -- Political decay and the return of patrimonial government -- The Indian detour -- Varnas and jatis -- Weaknesses of Indian politics -- Slavery and the Muslim exit from tribalism -- The Mamluks save Islam -- The functioning and decline of the Ottoman state --- Christianity undermines the family -- part III: The rule of law. The origins of the rule of law -- The church becomes a state -- The state becomes a church -- Oriental despotism -- Stationary bandits -- part IV: Accountable government. The rise of political accountability -- Rente seekers -- Patrimonialism crosses the Atlantic -- East of the Elbe -- Toward a more perfect absolutism -- Taxation and representation -- Why accountability? Why absolutism? -- part V: Toward a theory of political development. Political development and political decay -- Political development, then and now.

Francis Fukuyama examines the paths that different societies have taken to reach their current forms of political order.