Everything about Theocracy totally explained
Theocracy is a form of government in which a 'god' or 'deity' is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. For believers, theocracy is a
form of government in which divine power governs an earthly human state, either in a personal
incarnation or, more often, via religious institutional representatives (for example, a
church), replacing or dominating civil government. Theocratic governments enact
theonomic laws.
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".
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.
Some democratic political parties and other organizations advocate reconstruction of governments as theocracies. See the article on the
Islamic party. Other alleged examples include the
Unification Church and
Christian Reconstructionism.
History of the concept
The word
theocracy originates from the Greek
θεοκρατία (death of the life
), meaning "the rule of God". This in turn derives from the Greek words
θεος (
theos, from
an Indo-European root
occurring in religious concepts), meaning “god,” and κρατειν (
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
1st century 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'd a system of government that didn't 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 undeniably 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 somehow 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 (for example, 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 wasn't 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 (but is commonly used as the generic term). The more specific term
ecclesiocracy denotes rule by a church or analogous religious leadership.
In a pure theocracy, the civil leader is believed to have a direct personal connection with God. For example, a
prophet like
Moses ruled 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 don't claim that they're 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 didn't claim he's 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.
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.
Current states with theocratic aspects
Iran
Most observers would consider
Iran a theocracy, since the elected president and legislature are constitutionally subject to the supervision of two offices reserved for
Shia clerics: the
Supreme Leader of Iran (Rahbar) and the
Guardian Council, which even decide who may run for office.
However, Iranian policies themselves consider Iran a theo-democracy or
religious democracy.
The Supreme Leader is considered as the ultimate
head of state and
government, whereas the President is granted as the prime executor of policy. However, in the recent years
Mohammad Khatami has called Iranian political system as an alternative democratic model so called
religious democracy.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is run according to a
codified version of
Shari'a (Islamic legislation) with the
Quran declared to be the constitution and is therefore sometimes classified as theocratic, but it's officially and in political fact a hereditary monarchy, with the King wielding near-absolute power and the organs of official religion subservient to them, which is rather
caesaropapism: a state structure in which the government ('Caesar') is also in control of the main religious institutions.
The Vatican
The
Vatican City State is theocratic in a very limited sense, since it has temporal rule over a small territory, but that isn't its primary function. As per the
Lateran Treaty, secular laws and practices in the Vatican follow those of Italy. Responsibility for security, including keeping outside invaders at bay and prosecution of criminals, is shared by the Vatican's own armed force, the
Swiss Guard, and the Italian state.
The
Papal States -- the predecessor to the Vatican City State -- functioned more theocratically, with penalties that included
excommunication.
Athos (The Holy Mountain) Greece
Mount Athos is the only autonomous administrative department in Greece, which is a country run according to Roman Law and is otherwise entirely a unitary state. Mount Athos is theocratic in that it's ruled entirely by the monks under their own council from the capital Karyes, and it controls who can visit. Only Orthodox Christian males are allowed to stay permanently on Athos, which consists of 20 monastic establishments. Its spiritual leadership is the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople based in Istanbul. There is a religious police guard that has the authority to impose order, for example, ban the playing of musical instruments by visitors. The Greek police also have authority with the monks' permission to enforce the civil law of Greece and decisions of the Patriarchate in accordance with the Canon, for example, the decision to evict the monks of the renegade
Esphigmenou monastery. Athos has upheld derogations from the EU allowing them to continue the prohibition of the entry of females (including female mammals) on the mountain. This isn't because they're male monks, but because the mountain is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and this is an important historical fact of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Religious communities
Theocracy, as a form of ruling the state, should be distinguished from the internal order of a religious community. The
Knights Hospitaller is a religious order with an internal rule, but this doesn't make it a theocracy. Many states incorporate elements of religious law in their civil laws, but if these laws are administered by civil courts according to the logic of the state, this doesn't constitute a theocratic element in their constitutions.
Current states with vestigial theocratic aspects
Andorra
Andorra's government is in some aspect nominally theocratic in that the
Bishop of Urgell is one of its co-princes, although the role is virtually entirely ceremonial.
The UK
England has a minor theocratic aspect because the monarch is "Supreme Governor" of the
Church of England and "defender of the faith", and is prohibited from being a
Catholic. This has been the case since the Protestant Reformation in England, under
Henry VIII. Henry VIII created the Church of England in part because the Papacy wouldn't annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, but also due to the large amount of political power that the Vatican wielded within England. He wanted to annul the marriage because he couldn't produce a male heir that wasn't illegitimate. The monarch has virtually no real power, and his/her positions as head of state and church are purely ceremonial. Hence, the ruling government isn't subject to any religious interference, and England is a multi-faith society. However the Bishops and archbishops of the
Church of England sit in the
House of Lords as
Spiritual Peers, including the
Archbishop of Canterbury and
York. This doesn't apply to Scotland, whose Church of Scotland doesn't have the same relation to the Country, nor to Wales and Northern Ireland, which have no established church. Queen Elizabeth II, however, is a member of the Church of Scotland and appoints a representative to the General Assembly of the church if she can't attend personally.
Norway
While
Norway's population is relatively religious in their day-to-day lives by Scandinavian standards, they're by no means highly orthodox, and the Norwegian State retains a few vestigial religious overtones. As in many
constitutional monarchies, the Head of State is also the leader of the
state church. The 12th article of the
Constitution of Norway requires more than half of the members of the
Norwegian Council of State to be members of the state church. The second article guarantees freedom of religion, while also stating that
Evangelical Lutheranism is the official state religion.
On
July 9,
2006, a prominent member of
HEF, Jens Brun-Pedersen, called for the
Prime Minister to advocate the
separation of church and state. He argues that the 12th article of the constitution is
discriminatory, and that Norway can't criticize countries advocating
Sharia law when the constitution favors Lutheran members of society.
Norway is unique in the situation, that socially the policy of the state remains quite liberal - relative to other countries in Europe. Most theocratic states are much more socially conservative than Norway
Israel
There is a small amount of intertwining of Jewish law (
Halakha) and
civil law, particularly with regards to the enforcement of
Orthodox Jewish weddings for Jewish citizens, rather than allowing freedom to have a civil marriage (although these sorts of laws are being fought and revoked on a constant basis). Another promoted institution is that of the '
yeshiva'- an Orthodox Jewish seminary, often funded to a large extent by the state.
Historical theocracies
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.
In Antiquity
An example often given from Antiquity is
Pharaonic Egypt when the king was a divine or semi-divine figure who ruled largely through priests. Properly speaking this was originally a
caesaropapist order, rather than a theocratic one, since the worldly rulers took charge of religion, rather than vice versa, but once the Pharaoh (since
Ramses the Great) was recognized as a living (incarnated) god both definitions concurred.
In ancient
Greece and
Rome denying the gods of the state was a crime. In ancient Rome, the emperors were often
deified.
Historical Christian theocracies
Protestant Theocracies
Geneva, during the period of
John Calvin's greatest influence and the
Massachusetts Bay Colony of the "
Puritans" had many characteristics of Protestant theocracies.
Florence
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.
Deseret
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 1857/58, 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.
Montenegro
Montenegro offers a singular example of monarchs willingly turning their power to ecclesiastic authority (Serbian 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.
Republic of Ireland
It has frequently been argued that in the early years of the
Republic of Ireland (and its predecessor state
Éire), the
Roman Catholic hierarchy, in particular
John Charles McQuaid (Archbishop of Dublin 1940-72), held power comparable to elected officials. For example, Health Minister
Noel Browne was forced to resign in
1950, partly because of McQuaid's opposition to the
Mother and Child Scheme. Also, many things forbidden by Catholic doctrine -
condoms,
abortion,
divorce - were also illegal in Ireland up to the 1980s and '90s.
Province of Quebec (Canada)
The province of Quebec was considered a main Catholic stronghold of the world from its foundation up to 1960, the quiet revolution.(citation needed). The ecclesiastical regime which ruled Quebec from the 1930s to the early 1960s is mostly associated with the highly controversial premier
Maurice Duplessis. During that time, the line separating the civil, political authorities and the Catholic Church was all but obliterated.
Historical Islamic theocracies
In Islam, the period when
Medina was ruled by the
Islamic prophet Muhammad is, occasionally, classed as a theocracy. By 630, Muhammad established a theocracy in
Mecca. 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.
Historical Buddhist theocracies
The period when
Dalai Lamas ruled
Tibet, especially before certain
twentieth century reforms, has also been deemed a Lamaist (Buddhist) theocracy until his government was forced into exile by the People's Republic of China which annexed the country.
Mongolia also had a theocratic Lama before the Soviets installed a satellite communist state, but there since the start in 1639, when the son of the Mongol Khan of
Urga was named a Living Buddha (
Bogdo gegeen), the dynasty espoused theocracy and secular aristocracy.
Other
Japan was a nominal theocracy until it was defeated in World War II when Emperor
Hirohito was forced to deny in the the claim that the Emperor of Japan was divine. Formerly, the Meiji constitution of Japan stated that Emperor was sacred, but a claim of personal divinity was only made by the Showa emperor. The claim that the imperial family are descendants of
Amaterasu (天照) (the sun goddess) hasn't been denied officially. During this period, although the Emperor had some influence, Japan was a constitutional democracy ultimately dominated by the military.
In Popular Culture
- In the animated series, the fictional nation known as the Air Nomads was ruled by a theocratic establishment.
In the world of Warhammer 40,000, the Imperium follows the system of theocracy by obeying 'The Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind'.
The Covenant in Halo is a theocratic hegemony.
The Yuuzhan Vong species in Star Wars are ruled by a warlike theocracy.
In Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, the universe to which the main character belonged was ruled by a theocracy known as the Magisterium.
In 'The Handmaid's Tale', The Republic of Gilead, where the narrator lives, is a devout Christian theocracy.Further Information
Get more info on 'Theocracy'.
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