Theocracy

In modern, typical usage, theocracy means either government by divine guidance or, more commonly, government by or subject to religious institutions and leaders. Theocracy falls under the forms of either oligarchy or autocracy by the ruling priests. 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 (i.e.: a church), replacing or dominating civil government.

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. 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 which also have a state religion, and from some monarchies, in which the head of state legitimates the authority of the crown as being held By the Grace of God and tends to assume a sacral aura. Where there is a state or established religion, there is a long-term contract between the religious and political hierarchies. A monarchy which claims religious legitimation may also dominate the religious sphere (Caesaropapism), or it may be so dependent on the religious hierarchy for legitimation that the state has no autonomy from religion (theocracy). Typically, religiously endorsed monarchies fall between these two poles, according to the relative strengths of the religious and political organs.

Some states that are not in other senses theocratic have an entanglement between church and state in that they delegate some aspects of civil law, especially marriage, to the religious communities. For example, in Israel there is no civil marriage. 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.