Throughout history, great powers - Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, the British
and Spanish New World Empires, to name a few - have established widely
varying systems of domination to control subordinate polities. This variation,
especially when found among contemporaneous actors, suggests an important
puzzle that would seem to defy the expectations of predominant
approaches in international relations theory: Why do great powers facing the
similar incentives and constraints of an anarchic system establish widely
different sub-systems of hierarchical domination? This book seeks to explain
the apparent puzzle by theorizing that a great power's behavioral choice in
establishing hierarchy is influenced by domestic social factors. Specifically, I
look to a great power's communal ideology - its reason for being, or raison
d'etre, that informs membership criteria, political authority, and legitimate
power expression. Applying this theory to twelve cases in three eras of international
politics, I argue that communal ideology is a compelling explanation
for variation in great power hierarchy. This book is intended for audiences
interested in subject matter related to international relations theory, political
science and world history.