Imperial Breakdown

S. N. Eisenstadt&s;s major work, The Political Systems of Empires presents the essential features of his intellectual framework, including its theoretical and methodological aspects, and an important part of his empirical work. The basic hypothesis was that centralized historical bureaucratic empires were founded and institutionalized on a contradiction. Traditional, undifferentiated political activities and organizations coexisted with more differentiated, autonomous ones, all closely interwoven in the major aspects of political activity. Eisenstadt&s;s basic arguments, of course, help to explain the breakdown or transformation of these empires. Breakdown results from the inability to continue to sustain the balance otherwise required for systems maintenance. Eisenstadt also specified additional conditions that shape the direction of changes. In a work of such comprehensiveness as The Political Systems of Empires , it is difficult to point to any major theoretical variable that fails to receive at least some passing comment from Eisenstadt.

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