<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: #ffffff; font: normal normal normal 13px/1.3 Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: left; line-height: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px">A thread for thoughts on this planet & it's system & culture in my setting:<div><br /></div><div>Since I am making the original colonists Sect of the Gold Hand and Loyalists to the Crown: I will start with some ideas on that.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span"><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit"><b>Theocracy</b> or <b>Ecclesiocracy</b> is a form of government in which a <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">deity</span> is considered the source from which all authority derives. The <i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">Oxford English Dictionary</span></i> has this definition:</p><dl style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em"><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px">A form of government in which God (or a deity) is recognized as the king or immediate ruler, and his laws are taken as the statute-book of the kingdom, these laws being usually administered by a priestly order as his ministers and agents; hence (loosely) a system of government by a sacerdotal order, claiming a divine commission; also, a state so governed.</dd><dd style="margin-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-right: 0px"><br /></dd></dl></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span">In a pure theocracy, the civil leader is believed to have a personal connection with the civilization's religion or belief.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span"><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit">When religions have a "holy book," it is used as a direct message from God. Law proclaimed by the ruler is also considered a divine revelation, and hence the law of God. </p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit">An ecclesiocracy, on the other hand, is a situation where the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state, but do not claim that they are instruments of divine revelation. </p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit">The papacy in the <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">Papal States</span> occupied a middle ground between theocracy and ecclesiocracy, since the pope did not claim he was a prophet who received revelation from God and translated it into civil law.</p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit">Religiously endorsed monarchies fall between these two poles, according to the relative strengths of the religious and political organs.</p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit">Theocracy is distinguished from other, secular forms of government that have a <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">state religion</span>, or are influenced by theological or moral concepts, and <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">monarchies</span> held "<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">By the Grace of God</span>". In the most common usage of the term, some civil rulers are leaders of the dominant <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">religion</span>; the government proclaims it rules on behalf of <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial" class="Apple-style-span">God</span> or a higher power, as specified by the local religion, and divine approval of government institutions and laws. </p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit"> </p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit">Okay I am thinking some sort of hybrid... maybe like Iran does things?</p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit"> </p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: inherit"> </p></span></div></div></div>
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