The nation‐state, non‐Western empires, and the politics of cultural difference

Abstract While empires have been central to political theory, they almost always refer to Western forms of imperialism and colonialism to which non‐Western societies are subject. But precolonial empires have ruled much of the world for much of known history. Building on recent International Relations (IR) scholarship, this article reconstructs an ideal type of empires based on three non‐Western ones: the Qing, the Ottoman, and the Mughal empires, showing how they aim at cultural incorporation. I argue that this incorporation is made possible by three institutional features: the plural composition of their governing structures, the heterogenous relations between center and periphery, and the absence of a territorial basis for imperial authority. These features, in turn, make possible a normative ideal of inclusive peace. This historical foray shows how dependent multicultural ideals central to political theory today are on the contingent institutional features of modern states; it also helps us think beyond these.