Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities giving divine guidance to human intermediaries with executive, legislative or judicial power who manage the government's daily affairs.Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language (1989 edition).
Etymology The word theocracy originates from the () meaning "the rule of God". This, in turn, derives from θεός (theos), meaning "god", and κρατέω (krateo), meaning "to rule". Thus the meaning of the word in Greek was "rule by god(s)" or human incarnation(s) of god(s).
The term was initially coined by Flavius Josephus in the first century AD to describe the characteristic government of the Jews. Josephus argued that while mankind had developed many forms of rule, most could be subsumed under the following three types: monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy. However, according to Josephus, the government of the Jews was unique. Josephus offered the term theocracy to describe this polity in which a god was sovereign and the god's word was law.
Josephus' definition was widely accepted until the Enlightenment era, when the term took on negative connotations and was barely salvaged by Hegel's commentary. The first recorded English use was in 1622, with the meaning "sacerdotal government under divine inspiration" (as in ancient Israel and Judah); the meaning "priestly or religious body wielding political and civil power" was first recorded in 1825.
Definition
The term theocracy derives from the Koine Greek , "rule of God", a term used by Josephus for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah,English form the 17th century (OED). The Greek term is explicitly coined by Josephus and isn't attested elsewhere in Ancient Greek; Josephus marks it as a nonce coinage by calling it a "strained expression". W. Whiston tr. Josephus, Against Apion ii. §17 (1814) IV. 340: "He [Moses] ordained our government to be what, by a strained expression, may be termed a Theocracy", translating reflecting the view that "God himself is recognized as the head" of the state.Catholic Encyclopedia "A form of civil government in which God himself is recognized as the head." The common, generic use of the term, as defined above in terms of rule by a church or analogous religious leadership, may be more accurately described as an ecclesiocracy.Stephen Palmquist, Biblical Theocracy: A vision of the biblical foundations for a Christian political philosophy (Hong Kong: Philopsychy Press, 1993), introduced these more precise uses of the terms in arguing that theocracy (in this pure sense) is the only political system defended in the Bible. While Palmquist defends theocracy in this pure form as a viable (though "non-political") political system, he warns that what normally goes by this name is actually ecclesiocracy, the most dangerous of all political systems.
In an hierocracy, a specific type of theocracy, the governing body is composed of a hierarchical structure of religious officials or clergy. In an ecclesiocracy, the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state, but do not claim that they are instruments of divine revelation. In a church-state, religious and political power are intertwined, often with the church having significant influence over the government.
A related phenomenon is a secular government co-existing with a state religion or delegating some aspects of civil law to religious communities. For example, in post-Ottoman territories such as Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel (which is sometimes referred to as a theocracy), the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, due to legacy of the millet system marriage is governed by officially recognized religious bodies who each provide marriage services for their respected adherents, yet no form of civil marriage (free of religion) exists, nor marriage by non-recognized minority religions.
According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, there are two meanings for the word theocracy: (1) government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided; and (2) a state governed by a theocracy.
Current theocracies
Christian theocracies
Holy See
Following the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870, the Papal States including Rome with the Vatican were annexed by the Kingdom of Italy. In 1929, through the Lateran Treaty signed with the Italian government, the new state of Vatican City was formally created and recognised as an independent state from Fascist Italy. The head of state of the Vatican is the pope, elected by the College of Cardinals, an assembly of high-ranking clergy. The pope is elected for life, and either dies in office, or in extremely rare situations may resign. Cardinals themselves are appointed by popes, who thereby choose the electors of their successors. The pope also appoints the Bishop of Urgell, who rules the European microstate of Andorra as a constitutional co-prince alongside the President of France.
Voting since 1970 has been limited to cardinals under 80 years of age. A Secretary for Relations with States, directly responsible for international relations, is appointed by the pope. The Vatican legal system is rooted in canon law. The Bishop of Rome, as Supreme Pontiff, "has the fullness of legislative, executive and judicial powers."Fundamental Law of Vatican City State, Art. 1 §1 Although the laws of Vatican City come from the secular laws of Italy, under article 3 of the Law of the Sources of the Law, a provision is made for the application of the "laws promulgated by the Kingdom of Italy".
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain peninsula in Greece which is an Eastern Orthodox autonomous area consisting of 20 monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the Primate of Constantinople. There have been almost 1,800 years of a continuous Christian presence on Mount Athos, and it has a long history of monasteries, which dates back to at least 800 AD. The origin of self-rule at Mount Athos can be traced back to a royal edict issued by the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces in 972, and reaffirmed by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos in 1095. Greece wrestled control of the area from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War in 1912. However, it was formally recognized as part of Greece only after a diplomatic dispute with the Russian Empire was no longer an obstacle, after the latter's collapse during World War I.
Mount Athos is specifically exempt from the free movement of people and goods required by Greece's membership of the European Union,Joint Declaration No. 5 attached to the Final Act of the non-accession treaty. and entrance is allowed only with express permission from the monks. The number of daily visitors to Mount Athos is restricted, with all visitors required to obtain an entrance permit. Only men are permitted to visit, and Eastern Orthodox Christians take precedence in the issuing of permits. Residents of Mount Athos must be men aged 18 and over who are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church and also either monks or workers.
Athos is governed jointly by a community consisting of members of the 20 monasteries and a Civil Administrator, appointed by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The monastic community is led by the Protos.
United Kingdom & the Isle of Man The United Kingdom maintains a measure of partial ecclesiocracy via the Lords Spiritual, 26 senior bishops of the Church of England who sit ex officio in the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament. Similarly, in the Isle of Man, a crown dependency, the Bishop of Sodor and Man sits ex officio in the Legislative Council, the upper house of the Manx Tynwald; legislation to remove the bishop's seat was passed in 2026 and will have no bishops in its legislature once the current bishop retires.
Islamic theocracies
An Islamic republic is the name given to several states that are officially ruled by Islamic laws, including the Islamic Republics of Iran, Pakistan, and Mauritania. Pakistan first adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran adopted it after the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty.
The term "Islamic republic" has come to mean several different things, at times contradictory. To some Muslim religious leaders in the Middle East and Africa who advocate it, an Islamic republic is a state under a particular Islamic form of government. They see it as a compromise between a purely Islamic caliphate and secular nationalism and republicanism. In their conception of the Islamic republic, the penal code of the state is required to be compatible with some or all laws of Sharia, and the state does not necessarily have to be a monarchy, as many Middle Eastern states presently are.
Afghanistan Afghanistan was an Islamic theocracy when the Taliban first ruled it from 1996 to 2001, and again since their reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 2021.
Spreading from Kandahar, the Taliban eventually captured Kabul in 1996. By the end of 2000, the Taliban controlled 90% of the country, aside from the opposition (Northern Alliance) strongholds which were primarily found in the northeast corner of Badakhshan Province. Areas under the Taliban's direct control were mainly Afghanistan's major cities and highways. Tribal khans and warlords had de facto direct control over various small towns, villages, and rural areas. The Taliban sought to establish law and order and to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia, along with the religious edicts of Mullah Mohammed Omar, upon the entire country of Afghanistan.
During the five-year history of the Islamic Emirate, the Taliban regime interpreted the Sharia in accordance with the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence and the religious edicts of Mullah Omar. The Taliban forbade pork and alcohol, many types of consumer technology such as music, television, and film, as well as most forms of art such as paintings or photography, male and female participation in sport, including football and chess; recreational activities such as kite-flying and keeping pigeons or other pets were also forbidden, and the birds were killed according to the Taliban's ruling. Movie theaters were closed and repurposed as mosques. Celebration of the Western and Iranian New Year was forbidden. Taking photographs and displaying pictures or portraits was forbidden, as it was considered by the Taliban as a form of idolatry. Women were banned from working, girls were forbidden to attend schools or universities, were requested to observe purdah and to be accompanied outside their households by male relatives; those who violated these restrictions were punished. Men were forbidden to shave their beards and required to let them grow and keep them long according to the Taliban's liking, and to wear turbans outside their households. Communists were systematically executed. Prayer was made compulsory and those who did not respect the religious obligation after the azaan were arrested. Gambling was banned. Thieves were punished by amputating their hands or feet. In 2000, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar officially banned opium cultivation and drug trafficking in Afghanistan; the Taliban succeeded in nearly eradicating opium production (99%) by 2001. Under the Taliban governance of Afghanistan, both drug users and dealers were severely prosecuted.