2009 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel
The Economics of Theocracy
verfasst von : Mario Ferrero
Erschienen in: The Political Economy of Theocracy
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
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As Josephus’s opening quote unambiguously states for ancient Israel, theocracy literally means government by God. Since, however, God is not known to have ruled worldly government directly, the word is usually understood to mean government by a clergy, or a self-appointed group who claim to speak and act on God’s behalf. This will be our understanding of the term in this chapter: a political arrangement by which the main functions of secular government are discharged by a priesthood who double as secular officials. It bears noting that theocracy in this strict sense is by no means coterminous with overarching power of a church or religion; to take a current example, Saudi Arabia, which is ruled by a lay royalty, is arguably more tightly dominated by religion in everyday life than Iran, which is ostensibly ruled by clerics.