Academic literature on the topic 'Theocratic State'

The Liberal Conscience: Politics and Principle in a World of Religious Pluralism, Lucas Swaine, New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, pp. xxii, 215.The Liberal Conscience by Lucas Swaine represents a response from a liberal to those who affirm a theocratic conception of the good. Swaine distinguishes between logic and rhetoric, between that which should persuade and that which is likely to persuade. He suggests that a justification of liberal principles founded on conscience should persuade honest theocrats and Swaine makes the case that this should matter to both liberals and theocrats. The liberal, who founds a justification of liberal principles in conscience and accommodates those whose conscience forces them to seek exemption from certain conventional norms, in Swaine's view, is acting in a manner consistent with the authentic spirit of liberal principles. A liberal democratic state reflecting such a spirit, Swaine argues, is in a stronger position logically to expect theocrats to view it as a legitimate political authority. Otherwise, it is presumptuous, he suggests, for a liberal democratic state to expect the allegiance of theocrats.

This article is about freedom of religion in South Africa before and after 1994. It is often argued that the relationship between church and state, and the resultant freedom of religion, during 1652-1994 was determined by a theocratic model of the relationship between church and state. In a theocratic model it is religion and its teachings that determine the place and role of religion in society. This article argues that it was, in fact, a Constantinian model of the relationship between state and church which determined the place and role of religion in society between 1652 and 1994. In a Constantinian model it is the governing authority's understanding and application of religion that determines the place and role of religion in society as well as the resulting degree of freedom of religion. Examples from history are used to prove the point. The second part of the article discusses freedom of religion in South Africa after 1994.

AbstractThis article deals with one of the perennial questions of legal and political philosophy, ie, how the state should relate to religion? It makes a distinction between five models: (i) the atheist state, (ii) the theocratic state, (iii) the model of an official state church, (iv) the multiculturalist state, and (v) the agnostic state (or secular state). The authors reflect on the legitimacy of each of these models. Some states reclaim their right to adopt an official religion as their state religion or as the religious Leitkultur of their country (model iii). Others favor the support of religion as long as this is premised on the equal rights of all religions (model iv). And others think that the state can only support equal citizenship if the state does not support any religion whatsoever (model v).

Abstract Despite some indications to the contrary, religion still plays an important role in contemporary society. In this paper, the association between religion and the quality of public goods and services, measured by the so-called “delivery quality” index of the Worldwide Governance Indicators project, is empirically investigated. Besides religion, different political regimes may also have a crucial impact on the quality of public goods and services. In the paper, a distinction is made between theocratic, autocratic and democratic systems. It is hypothesized that the delivery quality is lower in theocratic and autocratic regimes than in democracies. In addition, religious diversity may enhance the quality of public goods and services in otherwise autocratic and democratic regimes. The level of religious goods and services provision should be lower in religiously diverse societies, because the costs of these goods are higher due to a lack of economies of scale. This may leave more potential for the provision of high-quality public goods and services by the state. These hypotheses are tested empirically with data from 190 countries. The empirical estimates confirm that both theocratic and autocratic regimes provide lower average delivery quality than democracies. Furthermore, a positive association of religious leadership with delivery quality is found in strict autocracies. Greater religious diversity is thus linked to a better quality of pubic goods and services in democracies, but not in autocracies.

This study aimed at addressing the relationship between religion and state, by reviewing the evolution of that relationship in the western vision, beginning with the dominance of the Church in the medieval period, and the emergence of the theocratic state, then ideas of secularism, and the conflict between religion and state in the Frame of ideology, Then reviewing a regression in the thesis of the transition to secularism and the emergence of religious presence in the public sphere. On the other hand, the study dealt with the relationship between religion and state in the Islamic vision in its Asian Models. Where the study dealt with the model of the "Madina State" during the era of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), which is the Islamic model that spread in the Asian Peninsula, which was the basis of Sunni Islamic thought later. The study also dealt with the "Wilayat al-Faqih" model, which forms the basis of Shiite thought in Iran.
 
 The study relied on the descriptive approach that deals with the analysis and description of the phenomenon. This approach was used in this study to trace the development of the relationship between religion and state in the western vision and Islamic vision in its Asian models.
 
 The study concluded with some results. The most important of these was that: the Western vision to a certain extent passed with integration between religion and the state, as embodied in the model of the "Theocratic State" in the Medieval Period, where the church dominated all the political and social affairs of the state. The Western vision also to a certain extent passed with separation between the religion and the state, as embodied in the model of "secularism", where modernity was linked to the non-involvement of religion in politics, The Western vision also passed with the emergence of a regression in the thesis of the transition to secularism, as reflected in the model of "religious presence in the public sphere. Finally, the Islamic vision with its Asian Models witnessed the difficulty of full integration or separation between the religion and the state, as embodied in the model of the "Madina State" during the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and its thought which is followed by Sunni Islamic thought. And the Shiite "Wilayat al-Faqih" model, which was the origin of a religious mandate for political power, although it differs from the "Theocratic State" model completely.

Naser Ghobadzadeh’s Religious Secularity presumes that Muslim thinkers nolonger consider an Islamic state as the desired political system. This aversionto a theocratic state is perhaps felt most by those Iranian reformist thinkerswho have had to operate in such a state since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Theauthor claims that in its place, the Muslim world has devised a new theoreticalcategory called “religious secularity,” which allows for a religiously secularstate to, at least theoretically, present itself as an alternative to an Islamic one.He defines this religiously secular attitude as one that refuses to eliminate religionfrom the political sphere, but simultaneously carves out a space for secularpolitics by narrowly promoting only the institutional separation of religionand state.He claims that this concept has two goals: to (1) restore the clergy’s genuinespiritual aims and reputation and (2) show that Islam is compatible withthe secular democratic state. In Iran, rather than launching overt attacks againstthe theocratic state, this discourse of religious secularity has created a more“gentle, implicit and sectarian manner in challenging the Islamic state.” Unlikein pre-revolutionary times when there were both religious and non-religiousideologies vying for an audience, Ghobadzadeh suggests that in Iran today,“the alternative discourses are religious and concentrate on liberating religiousdiscourse from state intervention.”The author pays homage to Abdullahi An-Na’im and claims to be usingIslam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari‘a (2008) as aconceptual framework. As far as subfields within political science go,Ghobadzadeh’s Religious Secularity is also similar in form to NaderHashemi’s Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy (2009) and, as such,can be considered a work of theoretical comparative political science ...

The societal conflicts between Secularist groups and Jihadist militants on the role religious orientations played in the state democratization, social justice, human rights, and population development posited national exigencies un-decisively met by governments of the African and Arab regions. Part one of our research theorized three typologies shaping the challenges of similar conflicts in the Arab-African states of Egypt and Sudan. The typologies symbolized a Sufi culture perpetuating Muslims’ humanitarian relations; Secularist thought excluding the politics of faith; and Jihadist reactionaries manipulating symbolic representation of religion in the striving for power domains. Lacking in serenity the Sufi culture maintained for ages by popular prevalence, the Jihadist reactionaries sponsored a theocratic militancy that generated instability by excessive violence. Entrenched in non-democratic authoritative systems, the state failed in both countries to end peacefully the deepened tensions of the ongoing contradictions. Preserving the popular culture and supporting democratic governance, the Sufi/Secularist groups would probably continue to resist the theocratic dogma that evidently penetrated the region. Part two of the research proposed a study on the typologies’ dynamics to project the extent of political integrity in the future of Sudan and Egypt. This paper comprised a brief summary of part one of the analysis.