Oriental despotism

For the 1957 book by Karl August Wittfogel, see Oriental Despotism.

Oriental despotism refers to the Western view of Asian societies as politically or morally more susceptible to despotic rule, and therefore different from the democratic West. This view is often pejorative.^[1][2] The term is often associated with Karl August Wittfogel's 1957 book Oriental Despotism.^[3]

See also

• Asian values
• Asiatic mode of production
• Hydraulic empire
• Tsarist absolutism

References

1. Rubiés, Joan-Pau (2005). "Oriental Despotism and European Orientalism: Botero to Montesquieu". Journal of Early Modern History. 9 (1–2): 109–180. doi:10.1163/1570065054300275. ISSN 1385-3783.
2. Yoon, Kate (2023). "Oriental Despotism and the Limits of Doux Commerce, from Montesquieu to Raynal". Political Theory. 51 (3): 456–480. doi:10.1177/00905917221134718. ISSN 0090-5917.
3. Mote, F. W. (1961). "The Growth of Chinese despotism: A critique of Wittfogel's theory of Oriental Despotism as applied to China". Oriens Extremus. 8 (1): 1–41. ISSN 0030-5197.