Needham's Grand Question has led to a comparative study of the macro structure of science development in different civilizations. This talk puts forward the concept of the “science regime” to describe the macro structure of science development. The science regime concept frames the dominant relationship between scientific knowledge and other types of knowledge such as religious and metaphysical knowledge in a society. I identify three variables that determine the different types of knowledge, namely the subject of knowledge production, the source of knowledge authority, and the driving power of knowledge production, and show how science regimes in different civilizations can be divided into four ideal types: persuasive, integrative, dependent, and experimental. A society’s power structure is a key factor in the formation and evolution of its science regime, especially in the relationship between political and ideological power. Both ancient Chinese and Islamic civilizations belonged to an “integrated” science regime, which could not be spontaneously transformed into an “experimental” science regime without a change in power structure, which is why, it can be argued, there was no scientific revolution. Western civilization evolved from the Greek “persuasive” science regime via the medieval “dependent” science regime to the modern “experimental” science regime, so here, it can be said that the essence of a scientific revolution is the change in the science regime.