Governing Before the State: Indigenous Javanese Administrative Theory

ABSTRACT Public administration scholarship often treats the Weberian ideal type as a universal model of bureaucracy, making governance arrangements that differ from it appear deficient rather than different. A decolonizing approach instead asks whether non‐Western historical records can offer alternative ways of theorizing governance. This study explores that possibility through the Nagarakretagama, a 14th‐century Javanese court eulogy composed by Mpu Prapanca in 1365, which predates Machiavelli's The Prince by 148 years. Qualitative content analysis of all 98 cantos identifies five governance domains: bureaucratic hierarchy, mandala‐based territorial administration, conditional fiscal exemptions, a legal order combining written law and custom, and ceremonial practices integrated with administration. These dimensions show how the Javanese empire organized authority, territory, revenue, law, and legitimacy through institutional arrangements that differ from the Weberian model. Reading this governance system as theory reveals an alternative conceptualization of administration and advances a decolonizing, pluriversal approach to public administration.