Theocracy

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Theocracy \The*oc"ra*cy\, n. [Gr. ?; ? God + ? to be strong, to
     rule, fr. ? strength: cf. F. th['e]ocratie. See {Theism}, and
     cf. {Democracy}.]
     1. Government of a state by the immediate direction or
        administration of God; hence, the exercise of political
        authority by priests as representing the Deity.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The state thus governed, as the Hebrew commonwealth before
        it became a kingdom.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  theocracy
       n 1: a political unit governed by a deity (or by officials
            thought to be divinely guided)
       2: the belief in government by divine guidance

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  57 Moby Thesaurus words for "theocracy":
     absolute monarchy, aristocracy, autarchy, autocracy, autonomy,
     coalition government, colonialism, commonwealth,
     constitutional government, constitutional monarchy, democracy,
     dictatorship, dominion rule, duarchy, duumvirate, dyarchy,
     federal government, federation, feudal system, garrison state,
     gerontocracy, heteronomy, hierarchy, hierocracy, home rule,
     limited monarchy, martial law, meritocracy, militarism,
     military government, mob rule, mobocracy, monarchy, neocolonialism,
     ochlocracy, oligarchy, pantisocracy, patriarchate, patriarchy,
     police state, pure democracy, regency, representative democracy,
     representative government, republic, self-determination,
     self-government, social democracy, stratocracy, technocracy,
     thearchy, totalitarian government, totalitarian regime, triarchy,
     triumvirate, tyranny, welfare state
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Theocracy
     a word first used by Josephus to denote that the Jews were under
     the direct government of God himself. The nation was in all
     things subject to the will of their invisible King. All the
     people were the servants of Jehovah, who ruled over their public
     and private affairs, communicating to them his will through the
     medium of the prophets. They were the subjects of a heavenly,
     not of an earthly, king. They were Jehovah's own subjects, ruled
     directly by him (comp. 1 Sam. 8:6-9).