We explain what a theocracy is and who exercises power in this form of government. In addition, its origin, characteristics and examples.
What is a theocracy?
A theocracy is a form of government in which Condition and political power are administered by the institutions of the religion dominant in the nation. That is, as its name indicates (from the Greek theos, "God and Kratos, "Power" or "government"), it is the government of god or, to tell the truth, of his supposed representatives on Earth: a priestly caste or a religious monarch.
This means that, in a society theocratic, the power to guide and order society is exercised by religious institutions, in accordance with the moral and social codes that their dogma set. Thus, in them there is no separation between the laws of the State and the laws of the Church, or in any case it is a very small separation.
Many monarchies can also be considered theocracies, since their kings or emperors rule by divine right, that is, because God so arranged it, or that they do his will on Earth. In these cases, the clergy is also a social actor with great influence in politics, to the point of being the religious authorities who crown their kings.
Characteristics of a theocracy
Generally, when speaking of a theocracy, we think of the following characteristics:
- There is a powerful priestly class and in direct or indirect control of the State, through which they impose on society a more or less fundamentalist point of view on matters. moral, social and even politics Y economical.
- Power is exercised in the name of divine will, that is, by command of God, and therefore religious laws are also imposed as political laws.
- There is no separation between State and Religion.
Origin of theocracy
Many ancestral peoples of antiquity were governed by a shamanic mandate, that is, they relied on the mystical knowledge of the tribal priest at such a level that it was he who decided the conduct community: what foods to eat and what not to eat, what to do with outsiders entering the village, etc. This power could or could not be shared with a military leader.
However, the first form of theocracy in the Western tradition appears in the Biblical Pentateuch, in which the Levites (descendants of Levi) formed a priestly caste, whose leadership was prior to the emergence of the kings of Israel.
Another example is constituted by the Egyptian pharaohs, who were at the same time kings and priests, or even gods themselves, and their power in certain periods (as in the reforms of the Amarnian period) depended enormously on the religious.
Examples of theocracies
It is not difficult to find examples of theocracy throughout history: the Sikh Empire of India, the rule of the Dalai Lama in Tibet until the Chinese invasion of 1951, or the Ottoman Caliphate of 1924.
The deep changes cultural Renaissance and, above all, of the later Illustration, established the radical separation of state and religion. For its part, at present, very few cases of theocracy survive, such as:
- The government of Vatican City, headed by the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, the Pope.
- The revolutionary Islamic government of Iran, controlled from its inception by the ayatollahs (especially its founder, Ayatollah Khomeini).
- The de facto caliphate established by the forces of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in the Middle East since 2014, in the wake of brutal conflicts in the region.
- The Islamic State of Afghanistan, governed by Muslim law (the sharia) and ruled by the Mujahideen from 1992 to 2004.