This unprecedented survey and analysis of government is the late S. E. Finer's tour de force - demonstrating the breadth of imagination and magisterial scholarship that characterized the work of one of the twentieth century's leading political scientists. A unique study of government through time and throughout the world, it ranges over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state. Five themes emerge: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types.