ABSTRACT
The authoritarianism of Japanese regimes before the Allied Occupation is a simple matter of fact. The liberal vanguard had embraced the ballot but not any consequent surrender of imperial authority, the dignity of the subject but not any consequent entitlement of the citizen. Authoritarianism elevates the state above social control because it is premised on the superiority of rulers to the people. Authoritarian rule in Tokugawa Japan had a peculiar profile. Both the divisions within an uncomfortable leadership and the prominence of "nonsamurai near-officials" in local administration mitigated the features of authoritarian command. They grounded authority in the proper human response to verifiable knowledge—knowledge of history, natural science, banking and currency, market economics, and agrarian practice. The authority of the leadership remained as firm a principle as it had been in the Tokugawa polity. Public actors remonstrated with bad officials without rejecting officialdom; they reconceived authority in accord with the still-elitist principle of expert performance.
