Public Interest and State Legitimation: Early Modern England, Japan, and China

January 16, 2023 Hoover Institution | Stanford University A Hoover History Lab Book Talk with Wenkai He. Wenkai He is the author of the acclaimed book Paths toward the Modern Fiscal State: England, Japan, and China (Harvard, 2013), an extraordinary comparative work, based on an impressive array of primary sources, elucidating why the modern the modern fiscal state emerged in some places and not in others.  His new book, Public Interest and State Legitimation: Early Modern England, Japan, and China (Cambridge, 2023), again marshaling vast primary source evidence, examines how a public interest-based discourse of state legitimation emerged not only in early modern England, but also in Japan and China.  This shared normative platform enabled societies to negotiate and collaborate with states over how to attain good governance through providing public goods such as famine relief and infrastructural facilities. The terms of state legitimacy opened a limited yet significant political space for the ruled to petition and protest, challenging states to fulfill their promises and address grievances about taking care of the people.  Not a few petitions demanded fundamental political reforms.  This is yet another indispensable work for all those interested in state-making in global perspective. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Wenkai He is an associate professor in the Division of Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interest is the comparative political economy of state formation. His book Paths toward the Modern Fiscal State: England, Japan, and China (Harvard University Press, 2013) examines the process of institutional development through which states managed to centralize the collection of indirect taxes to raise long-term financial resources and thus significantly enhance state capacity.