Theocracy is a form of government in which a state is understood as governed by immediate divine guidance especially a state ruled by
clergy, or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided.
From the perspective of the theocratic government, "God himself is recognized as the head" of the state, hence the term
theocracy, from the Greek "rule of God", a term used by
Josephus of the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Theocratic governments enact
theonomic laws (rules).
A theocracy may be monist in form, where the administrative hierarchy of the government is identical with the administrative hierarchy of the religion, or it may have two 'arms,' but with the state administrative hierarchy subordinate to the religious hierarchy.
Theocracy should be distinguished from other secular forms of government that have a state religion, or are merely influenced by theological or moral concepts, and monarchies held "By the Grace of God".
History of the concept
The word
theocracy originate from the Greek , meaning "the rule of God". This in turn derives from the Greek words (
theos, from
an Indo-European root occurring in religious concepts), meaning "god", and (
kratein), meaning "to rule." Thus the meaning of the word in Greek was "rule by
god(s)" or human incarnation(s) of god(s).
It was first coined by Josephus Flavius in the first century A.D. to describe the characteristic government for Jews. Josephus argued that while the Greeks recognized three types of government: monarchy, aristocracy, and anarchy, the Jews were unique in that they had a system of government that did not fit into those categories. Josephus understood theocracy as a fourth form of government in which only God and his law is sovereign. Josephus' definition was widely accepted until the Enlightenment era, when the term started to collect more universalistic and negative connotations, especially in Hegel's hands.
The first recorded English use was in 1622, with the meaning "sacerdotal government under divine inspiration" (as in Biblical Israel before the rise of kings); the meaning "priestly or religious body wielding political and civil power" is recorded from 1825.
The word has been mostly used to label certain politically unpopular societies as less rational or developed. The concept is used in sociology and other social sciences, but the term is often used inaccurately, especially in popular rhetoric.
In the most common usage of the term theocracy, some civil rulers are leaders of the dominant religion (e.g., the Byzantine emperor as patron of the head of the official Church); the government claims to rule on behalf of God or a higher power, as specified by the local religion, and divine approval of government institutions and laws. These characteristics apply also to a caesaropapist regime. The Byzantine Empire however was not theocratic since the patriarch answered to the emperor, not vice versa; similarly in Tudor England the crown forced the church to break away from Rome so the royal (and, especially later, parliamentary) power could assume full control of the now Anglican hierarchy and confiscate most church property and income.
Taken literally or strictly, theocracy means rule by God or gods and refers primarily to an internal "rule of the heart", especially in its biblical application. The common, generic use of the term, as defined above in terms of rule by a church or analogous religious leadership, would be more accurately described as an ecclesiocracy.
In a pure theocracy, the civil leader is believed to have a direct personal connection with God. For example, a prophet like Moses led the Israelites, and the prophet Muhammad ruled the early Muslims. Law proclaimed by the ruler is also considered a divine revelation, and hence the law of God. An ecclesiocracy, on the other hand, is a situation where the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state, but do not claim that they are instruments of divine revelation. For example, the prince-bishops of the European Middle Ages, where the bishop was also the temporal ruler. The papacy in the Papal States occupied a middle ground between theocracy and ecclesiocracy, since the pope did not claim he is a prophet who receives revelation from God, but merely the (in rare cases infallible) interpreter of already-received revelation.
Religiously endorsed monarchies fall between these two poles, according to the relative strengths of the religious and political organs.
The example which Flavious gave for theocracy, the rule of the Temple of Jerusalem's High Priest, would under the present definition be an Ecclesiocracy, since these (often worldly) priests did not claim to have any revelation or direct connection with God.
Secular governments can also coexist with a state religion or delegate some aspects of civil law to religious communities. For example, in Israel civil marriage is governed by Jewish religious institutions for Jews, by Muslim religious institutions for Muslims, and by Christian religious institutions for Christians. India similarly delegates control of marriage and some other civil matters to the religious communities, in large part as a way of accommodating its Muslim minority.
Egypt was run in both a monarchic and theocratic fashion in which the pharaoh was the head priest...
Current states with theocratic aspects
Islamic states
An
Islamic state is a state that has adopted Islam, specifically Sharia, as its foundations for political institutions, or laws, exclusively, and has implemented the islamic ruling system khilafah (Arabic خلافة). Although there is much debate as to which states or groups operate strictly according to Islamic Law,
Saudi Arabia and
Iran maintain religious courts for all aspects of law and have
religious police to maintain social compliance. Most Muslim Middle Eastern countries have a legal system highly influenced by Sharia to varying degrees, while
Turkey,
Indonesia,
Bangladesh and
Pakistan have largely secular constitutions and legal systems (the latter calls itself an "Islamic Republic").
India, Israel and the Philippines officially recognize Muslim civil laws, wholly based on Sharia, for those who so choose. Sharia law is also applied in various parts of Sudan, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Libya, and elsewhere.
Iran's government is described as a "theocratic republic". Iran's head of state, or Supreme Leader, is an Islamic cleric appointed for life by an elected body called Assembly of Experts. In 1929, the State of Vatican City was formally recognized as an independent state through treaties with the Italian government.
Israel
Israel operates under a parliamentary system as a democratic republic with universal suffrage. However, Israel is frequently accused of being a theocratic state.
Since Israel was founded by the Zionist movement as a Jewish state, and Judaism as a religion is often conflated Judaism as a nationality, Others point out that Israeli citizens have diverse religions, even as the country only grants instant citizenship to Jews.
Such attributes, while appearing somewhat theocratic do not qualify the country as a theocracy, Emanuel Gutman argues:
Liechtenstein
Malta
Monaco
Some cantons of Switzerland (state religion):
*Appenzell Innerrhoden (declared "religion of the people of Appenzell Innerrhoden")
*Aargau
*Basel-Country
*Berne
*Glarus
*Graubünden
*Nidwalden
*Schwyz
*Thurgau
*Uri
A number of countries, including Andorra, Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Italy, Indonesia, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain, give a special recognition to Catholicism in their constitution despite not making it the state religion.
Eastern Orthodox
Jurisdictions which recognize one of the
Eastern Orthodox Churches as their state religion:
Cyprus (
Cypriot Orthodox Church)
Greece (
Church of Greece)
Finland:
Finnish Orthodox Church has a special relationship with the Finnish state. The internal structure of the church is described in the Orthodox Church Act. The church has a power to tax its members and corporations if a majority of shareholders are members. The church does not consider itself a state church, as the state does not have the authority to affect its internal workings or theology.
Lutheran
Jurisdictions which recognize a
Lutheran church as their state religion:
Denmark (
Church of Denmark)
Iceland (
Church of Iceland)
Norway (
Church of Norway)
Finland:
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has a special relationship with the Finnish state, its internal structure being described in a special law, the Church Act. The Finnish president also decides the themes for the intercession days. The church does not consider itself a state church, as the Finnish state does not have the power to influence its internal workings or its theology, although it has a veto in those changes of the internal structure which require changing the Church Act. Neither does the Finnish state accord any precedence to Lutherans or the Lutheran faith in its own acts.
Anglican
Jurisdictions that recognise an
Anglican church as their state religion:
England (Church of England)
Reformed
Jurisdictions which recognize a
Reformed church as their state religion:
Tuvalu (Church of Tuvalu)
Historic states with theocratic aspects
The largest and best known theocracies in history were the
Umayyad and early Abassid
Caliphate, and the
Papal States. And as with any other state or empire,
pragmatism was part of the politics of these
de jure theocracies.
Antiquity
The imperial cults in Ancient Egypt and elsewhere deified the ruling monarch, so that the state religion was dedicated to the worship of the ruler as a deity, or the incarnation of a deity.
In ancient and medieval Christianity, Caesaropapism is the doctrine where a head of state is at the same time the head of the church.
Reformation
Geneva, during the period of
John Calvin's greatest influence and the
Massachusetts Bay Colony of the "
Puritans" had many characteristics of Protestant theocracies.
During the short reign (1494–1498) of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican priest, the city of Florence could have been considered a theocracy. During his rule, un-Christian books, statues, poetry, and other items were burned (in the Bonfire of the Vanities), sodomy was made a capital offense, and other Christian practices became law.
Mormonism
Another ecclesiocracy was the administration of the short-lived
State of Deseret, an independent entity briefly organized in the American West by
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its original borders stretched from western
Colorado to the
southern California coast. When the Mormons arrived in the valley of the
Great Salt Lake in 1847, the
Great Basin was still a part of Mexico and had no secular government. As a result,
Brigham Young administered the region both spiritually and temporally through the highly organized and centralized
Melchizedek Priesthood. This original organization was based upon a concept called
theodemocracy, a governmental system combining Biblical theocracy with mid-19th-century American political ideals, including heavy reliance upon the U.S. Constitution.
The treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo resulted in the Mexican Cession by which Deseret was incorporated into the United States. In 1849, the Saints organized a secular government in Utah, although many ecclesiatical leaders maintained their positions of secular power. The Mormons also petitioned Congress to have Deseret admitted into the Union as a state. However, under the Compromise of 1850, Utah Territory was created and Brigham Young was appointed governor. In this situation, Young still stood as head of the LDS Church as well as Utah's secular government.
After the abortive Utah War of 1857–1858, the replacement of Young by an outside Federal Territorial Governor, the eventual resolution of controversies regarding plural marriage, and accession by Utah to statehood, the apparent temporal aspects of LDS theodemocracy receded markedly. However, — like many Christians, Jews, and Muslims — Latter-day Saints regard some form of theocracy with God as the head (king) of a chiliastic world government to be the true political ideal. But, until the Second Coming of Christ, the Mormons teach in their 12th Article of Faith: submission to the powers that be. But true to their beliefs in individual liberty and moral accountability, they exhibit a strong preference for democratic-republican, representative government as embodied in the Constitution of the United States. See also Theodemocracy.
Other
Montenegro offers a singular example of monarchs willingly turning their power to ecclesiastic authority (Montenegrin Orthodox), as the last of the
House of Crnojević (styled
Grand Voivode, not sovereign princes) did, in order to preserve national unity before the
Ottoman onslaught as a separate
millet under an autochthonous
ethnarch. When Montenegro re-established secular dynastic succession by the proclamation of princedom in 1851, it did so in favor of the last
Prince-bishop, who changed his style from
Vladika i upravitelj Crne Gore i Brde "Vladika [bishop] and Ruler of Montenegro and Brda" to Po
Bozjoj milosti knjaz i gospodar Crne Gore i Brde "
By the grace of God Prince and Sovereign of Montenegro and Brda", thus rendering his
de facto dynasty (the Petrović-Njegoš family since 1696) a hereditary one.
Islam
The period when
Medina was ruled by the
Islamic prophet Muhammad is occasionally classed as a theocracy. By 630, Muhammad had established a theocracy in
Makkah. Most Sunni Muslims believe that only the Prophet Muhammad was able to be both a governmental as well as religious leader. Other plausible examples of Islamic theocracy might be
Mahdist Sudan and the
Taliban state in
Afghanistan (1996–2001). Most irregular was the non-permanent rule of the
Akhoonds (imams) in the later
princely state of
Swat, a valley in (first British India's, later Pakistan's)
North-West Frontier Province. Theocratic movements arose in the Arab world in the 1970s.
Buddhism
Unified religious rule in Tibet began in 1642, when the
Fifth Dalai Lama allied with the military power of the Mongol
Gushri Khan to consolidate the political power and control centered around his office as head of the Gelug school.
This form of government is known as the
dual system of government. Prior to 1642, particular monasteries and monks had held considerable power throughout Tibet, but had not achieved anything approaching complete control, though power continued to be held in a diffuse, feudal system after the ascension of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Power in Tibet was held by a number of traditional elites, including members of the nobility, the heads of the major Buddhist sects (including their various
tulkus), and various large and influential monastic communities. Tibet during this period existed as a feudal theocracy, with a large class of serfs (consisting largely of non-noble Buddhist laymen) working on estates owned by monastic leaders and members of the secular aristocracy.
Political power was sometimes used by monastic leaders to suppress rival religious schools through the confiscation of property and direct violence.
Fictional Theocracies
Depictions of a fictional society dominated by a theocracy recur in
science fiction,
speculative fiction and
fantasy. Such depictions are mostly
dystopian, and in some cases humorous or satyrical.
The Earthquake in Chile, By Heinrich von Kleist (1807)
''Voyagers VI The Return, By Ben Bova
If This Goes On—/Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein (1940, revised and expanded 1953)
Gather, Darkness by Fritz Leiber (1943)
The Lovers by Philip Jose Farmer (1952 novella, expanded to full length 1961, revised 1977)
A Woman a Day (also "Moth and Rust" and "The Day of Timestop") by Philip Jose Farmer (1953 novella, expanded to full length 1960, same universe as "The Lovers")
Messiah by Gore Vidal (1954) ISBN 0-14-118039-0
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (1967)
The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd (1968)
The Goblin Tower by L. Sprague de Camp (1968) (episode set in the theocratic city-state of Tarxia)
The Stork Factor by Zach Hughes (1975)
Run, Come See Jerusalem! by Richard C. Meredith (1976)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
Candle by John Barnes (2000) . New York: Tor. ISBN 0-8125-8968-8.
The Sky So Big and Black by John Barnes (2003) . New York: Tor. ISBN 0-7653-4222-7
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman (2007)
In , Pontifex Mansel leads the Theocracy of Rausten.
The alien alliance known as "the Covenant" in the Halo series.
Atlantis in Age of Mythology is supposed to be governed by a theocrat. The politics are not explored however, and it is not stated how the theocrat kept himself in power when the gods abandoned the civilisation in the expansion pack's campaign.
The Amarr Empire in EVE Online
See also
Christian left
Christian right
Establishment of religion
Faith
Khalistan
List of forms of government
Religious left
Religious right
Sacred king
Separation of Church and State
State church
Theodemocracy
Unification Church and political involvement
Christian:
* Christian Exodus
Christian Reconstructionism
Christianism
Divine Right of Kings
Dominionism
Falange
National Catholicism
Rexism
Ustaše
Islamic:
Iranian Revolution
Islamic Banking
Islamic republic
Islamic state
Islamism
Political aspects of Islam
Religious police
Qutbism
Taliban
References
Further reading
Hirschl, Ran. Constitutional Theocracy. Harvard University Press, 2010. ISBN 0-674-04819-9, 978-0-674-04819-5.
External links
Biblical Theocracy, etext of a book by Stephen Palmquist (Philopsychy Press, 1993).
EtymologyOnLine
Is Judaism a Theocracy? chabad.org
First Things, August/September 2006, p. 23-30 – Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocracy
Caliphate: The Future of Islamic Theocracy
Freedom of Religion in Israel
Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats
Category:Religion and politics
Category:Religious law
Category:Separation of church and state
Category:Oligarchy
Category:Government
Category:Forms of government
