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This book explores the phenomenon of total power in East Asia, with particular attention to China, Korea, and Japan. It shows how total power enables an examination of regional experience as a part of global context in order to demarcate the connections with other countries and regions that have similar political cultures, such as those in Central Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. Moreover, it elucidates that the phenomenon of total power unpacks the interrelations not only between different countries, but also between political, economic, religious, or cultural aspects of the region as a whole, and of each country in particular. This book takes East Asia as a classic example of where total power has achieved the highest forms of development during traditional periods in the form of absolute economic dependence of society on the state, ideologically enshrined by a system of moral obligations toward supreme power that allowed for the establishment of a monopoly on forced labour, and the appropriation and distribution of social products. The author emphasizes the importance of exploring the tradition of total power with reference to the ongoing global crisis of European democracy. In doing so, the book shows that democratization has not brought qualitative changes to the political culture of East Asia. An essential interdisciplinary read for scholars studying political science, particularly East-West relations, this book situates East Asian political culture within a global context

The paper examines East Asia as regional civilization whose enduring characteristics emerged from long-term relations towards the Chinese model of a centralized state. The civilizational approach helps to understand the interrelation between different aspects of the region, such as politics, economy or culture. Chinese statehood relied on the principle of total power unrestricted by any norms of morality or laws and its neutralization by non-state institutions and informal networks. These two aspects helped to maintain a dynamic equilibrium of the political system and adapt it towards internal and external changes. The adoption of Chinese statehood came into contradiction with Korean and Japanese natural and social characteristics. This produced risks for the internal political legitimacy of political systems constructed according to the Chinese model in both countries. Necessity to preserve internal legitimacy encouraged external expansion of Imperial China and forced Korea and Japan to resist Sinocentric order but continue to adapt Chinese influence to local conditions. This contradiction defined reality of East Asian region during the traditional period, influenced its transition to modernity and remains relevant today.