Theocracy is the form of government in which all authority is believed to stem from a divine presence. In practical terms, power rests with a priestly figure ruling in the name of the deity. In such systems, officials (commonly members of the clergy) are considered to be operating under godly guidance, with the civic legal code accordingly rooted in religious law. Etymologically, theocracy comes from the Greek for ‘rule by God’.
There are several modern examples, including the Islamic theocracy of Iran, with Saudi Arabia also widely regarded as a theocratic state. The Vatican City State, home of the papacy, is also sometimes considered a theocracy, although the Pope does not claim to be communicating divine will through civil law. To that extent, it may be regarded as being closer to an ecclesiocracy, where religious figures play a leading role in government without claiming the status of instruments of divine revelation.
It is thought that theocracy was originally conceptualized by the first-century historian Flavius Josephus as he sought to explain the workings of the Jewish commonwealth of that period. He wrote that Moses ‘ordained our government to be what, by a strained expression, may be termed a theocracy, by ascribing the authority and power to God, and by persuading all the people to have a regard to him, as the author of all good things.’
Theocracies were reasonably common in the ancient world, and the Reformation saw attempts to reinstitute the system in Europe – with Girolamo Savonarola’s reign in 1490s Florence a notable example. In modern times, the phenomenon has been more associated with Islam, as when the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran in 1979, organizing the state around the principles of sharia (Islamic religious law), and when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Even more recently, the militant Islamist group known as ISIS has sought to establish a theocratic caliphate of its own.
For much of the world brought up on a tradition of secular government, theocracy is a highly problematic concept. Not least, the claim that theocracies operate under divine guidance leaves little room for dissent and opposition so treasured by adherents of democracy. C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia novels and a noted Christian philosopher, put it in these terms:
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 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 because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.