!!Types of Theocracy

'''Direct Theocracy (Thearchy)'''

* A deity is physically present and takes a direct role in governing the society, with any clergy relegated to a subordinate role. This would cover actual deities but also, in more mundane settings, human or seemingly human people who claimed to be such, including states where the leader was venerated as a living god. See GodEmperor and GodInHumanForm, and GodGuise for the sham version.

'''Divine Law'''

* The Law of the land is either a religious text or at the very least takes religion as the basis of its authority. This isn't limited to any particular system of government and is close to the original meaning of what Josephus meant by "Theocracy", as he was explaining that Jewish Law derived its mandate from God; subsequently, most Christian and Islamic countries have themselves claimed that their laws were based on the Word of God at one point of history or another, and equivalent phenomenons sometimes happened in cultures with different faiths.

'''Ecclesiocracy'''

* The technical name for the usual modern meaning of theocracy- this is where the [[TheChurch the clergy]] are running the government in the name of the deity or higher power that they serve. They may be led by a HighPriest or they might be run by a religious council, but they are the highest authority in the land and all secular arms of state are nominally subordinate to them.

'''Ceasaropapism'''

* The subordination of the clergy to state power with the secular authority (usually a monarch) reserving the right to give the clergy orders and in some cases even appoint or dismiss them, making the church a ''de facto'' or even outright arm of the state. Historically this was the norm in most of the early European Middle Ages [[note]]For a few centuries, a new Pope needed to be formally approved of by the Byzantine Emperor, and later the Holy Roman Emperor, before finally winning the right to be selected solely by their own College of Cardinals[[/note]] and later in Tsarist Russia and elsewhere, usually with the understanding that the secular ruler would protect the church and promote them as the state religion in return for religious support, but there were nevertheless often tensions and sometimes even wars about how far the authority of the secular ruler actually extended.

'''Papalism'''

* The principle that the HighPriest of a religion reserves the right to interfere in matters of state even outside their own official territory if the rulers of those states are members of the church; in practice this usually limits itself to specific issues that the HighPriest regards as important if the religion is spread so far and wide that keeping track of local affairs in foreign lands becomes impractical, but in extreme cases it can lead to the High Priest outright inciting rebellion against an alleged or actually transgressive sovereign. In real life this characterised the later Middle Ages and ultimately contributed to the Protestant Reformation as some secular rulers wished to free themselves of papal authority.

'''Religious Monarchy'''

* The HighPriest or another member of the clergy is also a monarch with secular responsibilities in a given territory. UsefulNotes/ThePope is an example as he is an elected monarch one of whose historic titles is "Prince of Rome", whose authority currently extends only to the microstate that is The Vatican, but until the 19th century also included the Italian Papal States. Elsewhere, some European Kings claimed the ability to perform miracles and held religious healing ceremonies, while in Islam the Caliphate was considered highest spiritual as well as temporal authority and his opinion carried the same weight as other Islamic scholars and jurists.

'''Divine Right of Kings'''

* The secular authority claims they are [[DivineRightOfKings the representatives of the deity on Earth]], which sometimes went along with the authority claiming that [[DrunkOnPower this made their authority absolute]] and defying them was defying God, although on the flipside it sometimes entailed a Mandate from Heaven and the people felt religiously justified in rebelling against a seemingly bad or incompetent ruler as well. If they are not also an example of Ceasaropapism they may not necessarily set themselves above the most senior clerical authorities, but they often expect the latter to back them up regardless.

'''Theodemocracy'''

* Formally proposed by [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} The Church of the Latter-Day Saints]], this basically is a government where the deity is recognised as being the source of their authority and said deity simply wants the state to be run democratically. Although it sparked fears in the United States that the Mormons were establishing a theocracy in their own territory, in structure what they proposed wasn't all that different from how the fairly religious USA was being run already and Mormon theodemocracy even allowed for other religions and religious denominations to partake as well as more or less equal partners.

'''Religious Commune'''

* A communal society that is based around a particular religion, which historically has included the humble beginnings of some major real world religions as well as smaller New Age ones, but on the more negative side can also include many dangerous cults. This can also just be a regular church, order, town or sect that is sufficiently isolated from the outside world by distance or some other factor.

'''Clerical Fascism'''

* A Fascist or fascist-style position which enshrines (or seeks to enshrine) a particular religion and intends to give it a place of prominence in the totalitarian regime. The leader(s) of the state may be clerics themselves or may simply be (at least in public) very religious laypeople, and typically they stress the religion as part of the nations cultural heritage as much as on its own merits, though some might go so far as to create a whole new religion that is more in-line with the fascist state's ideals. This usually does ''not'' include Fascist states that simply ally with the church for cynical political reasons though, especially if they plan on subjugating or eliminating the church down the line once they have [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived their usefulness]].