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“ ” You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some threw at You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you —Constitutional Peasants, Monty Python and the Holy Grail[1]

A theocracy is a form of government in which the policy is governed by divine intervention or divine guidance. Often, in a true theocracy, God is the actual head of state. In practice, due to communication issues, divinely inspired prophets or clergy handle the actual law-making and day-to-day administration.

The historian Flavius Josephus coined the word theocracy (Greek θεοκρατία) in the 1st century CE - he used the term to describe the Judaean regime, as opposed to the Roman secular regime.[2]

Arguments against a theocracy [ edit ]

“ ” I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.



And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be.... It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. —C.S. Lewis[3]

Theodemocracy [ edit ]

2017 Iranian presidential election results by county.

"Theodemocracy" is an idea put forward by Joseph Smith for his planned Mormon paradise.[4] In a theodemocracy, people supposedly have many of the traditional rights of a liberal democracy within the framework of rule by a single god (or religion).

In a broad sense, one could consider present-day Iran a theodemocracy, as many of the important governmental positions are elected, and many of the others are selected from people who are elected. For example, the President is directly elected (in theory at least), with no guarantee he won't steal the election, and the Supreme Leader is selected by the Assembly of Experts, and half are themselves popularly elected. The other half are chosen by the Supreme Leader, while all of the candidates (for not only the Assembly but Parliament and the Presidency) require approval from the Guardian Council, headed by the Supreme Leader. In practice the Assembly has never questioned or removed any of the Supreme Leaders. The Supreme Leader has a lifetime term, and there have been only two since 1979. The Guardian Council also routinely disqualifies candidates they deem as being too reform-minded. The Guardian Council must approve bills passed by Parliament — it frequently vetoes them. While the Parliament has to appoint members of the Guardian Council, its members are themselves nominated by the Supreme Leader and the head of the courts (himself appointed by the Supreme Leader). It is also the constitutional court, with control over the interpretation of the laws. Therefore, real power rests in the hands of unelected leaders.

So in reality, Iran is what you'd expect theocracy to be like — it's not pretty. "Theodemocracy" is a bit like the Trojan Horse or a wall crack hidden by a picture frame. It might look good on the surface (to some anyway), but the gift is an ambush and that crack is still there.

Examples [ edit ]

Sign forbidding women to enter the "Sacred Community of Mount Athos".

Current [ edit ]

Christian [ edit ]

Mount Athos, an autonomous region in Greece ruled by an ecclesiastical council of Greek Orthodox Church in which only men may reside or enter. [5]

The Vatican City, whose head of state is the Pope.

Islamic [ edit ]

Iran, under the very confusing regime of an Islamic Republic.

DAESH, an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization that ruled a swath of the Middle East and Africa.

Dubai (and the other emirates), despite attempts to convince the Western world that lots of money means they're not a theocracy.

Qatar, ditto.

Saudi Arabia, ditto.

Pakistan ever since dictator Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq's "Islamisation" policies, which saw a radical form of Sharia law implemented in the nation's judiciary. [6]

Aceh Province, an autonomous part of Indonesia located in northern Sumatra.[7]

Other [ edit ]

Historical [ edit ]

Imperial cults [ edit ]

Imperial Rome: some Roman emperors were considered gods. [8]

Similarly, Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs were treated as gods. [9]

Imperial China, as the emperor was considered a conduit between heaven and earth. [10]

Imperial Japan, as the emperor was considered divine, but in practice was a figurehead.

Jewish [ edit ]

the Confederated Tribes of Israel [11] (before becoming the United Kingdom of Israel) [12] (note these entities are more myth than history, known only through unreliable Bible accounts, and may not have existed at all)

(before becoming the United Kingdom of Israel) Kingdom of Judah (937-539 BCE).

Maccabean Kingdom (2nd to 1st centuries BCE)

Christian [ edit ]

Islamic [ edit ]

Eastern [ edit ]

Tibet between the consolidation of the Dalai Lama's power in 1642 and its conquest by Mao Zedong's China. [15]

Sikkim, a state in India. [16] (before the 1970s) [17]

(before the 1970s) The Central Tibetan Administration, which functions as a government-in-exile and had the Dalai Lama as its head of state until 2012.[18]

Future [ edit ]

In popular culture [ edit ]

“ ” God created Arrakis to train the faithful. —Frank Herbert

Unfortunately, not as many as you'd think, with Wikipedia's list actually larger than the one on TV Tropes.[19] If books are your thing, Margaret Atwood didn't write The Handmaid's Tale for nothing.[20] In video games, check out the Covenant in Halo,[21] the anti-papal goodness of Final Fantasy X,[22] Father Comstock's Columbia in BioShock Infinite,[23], the Holy Sacred Empire of Abel in Anima: Beyond Fantasy[24], Eden's Gate in Far Cry 5, and the Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40K.[25] The series His Dark Materials acts in part as a critique on theocracy.

Islamofascism [ edit ]

Islamofascism refers to the idea of supporting the establishment of either a Middle East-wide or a worldwide Caliphate. This is somewhat related to the (actual) ideologies of Islamism and jihadism, although "Islamofascism" includes some purely fantastic elements. Islamists and fascists do have some things in common, among them their hatred of (((da Joos))).

For example, in the neo-cons' view, all Islamofascists are supposed to be working together in a grand conspiracy against the US. Any conservative Muslim, or even anyone who is not a sufficiently enthusiastic war-hawk, is said to support "Islamofascism."

The whole idea of Islamofascism largely ignored:

The actual stated desires of the terrorists we were fighting The grievances of the Middle East as a whole The sectarian character of Islam, which kept many of the so-called "Islamofascists" from ever coming together in the first place (and actually has opened avenues of cooperation between the U.S. and some of the so-called "Islamofascists").

To say that this ignorance has been counter productive for progress in the region is an understatement.[26]

The concept's relations to Islam and fascism are both tenuous, since Islam and fascism historically had little to do with each other (Amin al-Husseini notwithstanding); however, the more extreme strains of Islamism can be seen as analogous to the form of authoritarian conservatism sometimes known as "clerical Fascism" - a variant of theocracy. Some states that might fit this pattern in the Middle East and North Africa are/were also receiving large sums of money in the form of foreign aid from the United States.[27]

Some Arab nationalist regimes did in fact draw inspiration both from Soviet Communism and Fascism, the most notable among which were the Syrian/Iraqi Ba'athist regimes as well as Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, though in terms of economics, Ba'athism and Nasserism had far more in common with the state socialism of the Eastern Bloc than with the corporatism of Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Third Reich. It should also be noted that the Ba'athist and Nasserist regimes were largely secular and were actually opposed by most Islamic extremists for being too "moderate" on religion. Only in later years did regimes like Saddam Hussein's Iraq embrace Islam more openly, with Saddam first styling himself as the Sunni champion against the Shi'ite Iranian ayatollahs during the gruelling 8-year Iran-Iraq War, and then putting the takbīr on the Iraqi flag (where it remains to this day, btw) during his (brief) occupation of Kuwait.

The term is often conflated with ideas like Eurabia and white genocide.

Christopher Hitchens also questioned the term, preferring the less syncretic description "fascism with an Islamic face" where relevant (such as in the case of DAESH).

The threat of Islamofascism can be treated much the same as Christofascism -- while genuine authoritarian Muslim ideologues exist, the threat of specifically combined Islam and fascism is minuscule.

Christofascism [ edit ]

Christofascism is a neologism coined in response to two trends:

The use of the word "Islamofascism" to describe a group ranging in size from a few fundamentalist Islamic theocratic leaders to the entire religion of Islam.

The observation that in the West (particularly in the United States), there are demagogues who seek to replace the established secular governments with theocracies built on their version of Christianity. For example, dominionism.

To wit, Christopher Hitchens once said you can substitute "Catholic right wing" for fascism in a history of Europe and not much would change.[28]

Some examples that approach genuine Christofascism include:

However, Christofascism is often overblown (much like Islamofascism). Merely advocating Christianity or "Christian values" in the public sphere is not fascism -- it is only when Christianity is forced onto non-Christians (etc.) that it is Christofascism.

See also [ edit ]