PART 1: The Authority of Kings -- Sacred and Secular Foundations of Kingship -- Japan -- Russia -- Imperial Germany and Prussia -- England -- Kingship and Aristocracy as a Type of Rule -- PART 2: Toward a Mandate of the People -- Transformations of Western European Societies in the 16th Century -- Kings and People in England -- Toward the Nation-State: France -- Nation-Building: Germany -- Nation-Building: Japan -- Nation-Building: Russia -- From Royal Authority to Popular Mandate: 20th-Century Perspectives.