Governments around the World by Fred M. Shelley

Author:Fred M. Shelley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2015-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Theocracies

Theocracy is a form of governance in which the divinity is regarded as the head of state, and the state is governed in accordance with principles associated with religious belief. In theocracies, the government is believed to derive its power from God or gods. Although many ancient states were theocracies, only a very few countries in the world today can be regarded as theocracies.

Examination of theocracy as a form of governance can be placed within the context of relationships between secular or civic authority and religious authority. Historically, many cultures regarded both secular authority and religious authority as derived from the divine. The head of state was also the head of that state’s religious institution and believed to have been inspired divinely. For example, the Hebrew patriarch Moses was the leader of the Israelite community, and he was seen as having derived his authority from God. Rulers of ancient Egypt were regarded as divinities, and the Emperor of Japan was regarded as a divinity until after World War II. Today, rulers are no longer regarded as incarnations of divinities, although law in theocracies continues to be based on religious principles.

As the modern state system as we know it today began to develop in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Western world, secular authority and religious authority began to become separated from each other. This separation underlay the Peace of Westphalia, which formed the basis of international law governing relationships among sovereign states. The Peace of Westphalia was based on the principle that a ruler in central Europe could choose the official religion of his or her kingdom or principality from among Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, or Calvinism. However, the ruler could not claim divine authority. Thus the Peace of Westphalia codified the idea that religion and civic authority were to be separated.

By granting a ruler the right to select an official religion, the Peace of Westphalia also established the principle that the state could identify a state religion. States could and usually did privilege the state religion in a variety of ways. Tax revenues were used to subsidize the state church, for example by constructing religious buildings and training members of the clergy. Religious leaders had a formal say in the government. For example, 26 seats in the House of Lords in the United Kingdom are reserved for leaders of the Church of England. Historically, in some states citizens were required to belong to the state church, but this practice has disappeared in the Western world today.

The history of these relationships is illustrated by the example of Sweden. The Church of Sweden, whose theology is based on that of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, broke with the Roman Catholic Church in the early sixteenth century and became the official religion of Sweden in 1593. During the eighteenth century, all Swedes were required to belong to the Church of Sweden, and religious gatherings and services without a Lutheran clergyman present were forbidden by law. At that time it was illegal for a Swedish citizen to convert to another religion.

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