Globalization has become an inescapable fact of contemporary life. Some leaders, in both the East and the West, believe that human rights are culture-bound and that liberal democracy is essentially Western, inapplicable to the non-Western world.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Confucius' noble person -- The noble paths of Buddha and Rama -- Buddhist spirituality and Chinese civility -- Shōtoku's constitution and the civil order in Early Japan -- Chrysanthemum and civil society in Song China -- Civil and military in Tokugawa Japan -- Citizen and subject in modern Japan -- "The people renewed" in twentieth-century China.