Introduction

Even though the institution of theocracy is about as old as recorded human history, it has unexpectedly come under the limelight of public discussion and scholarly interest in the wake of the recent, spectacular rise of Islamic fundamentalism on the world stage. In one widespread view, Western capitalist democracy is pitted against forces and regimes, such as Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan, whose goal is to establish the rule of Islamic law. In another view, the influence of religion on politics is on the rise not only in the Muslim world but also in the democratic West and especially in the United States; some critics, such as Kevin Philips (2006), go so far as to speak of an American theocracy. In either view, even if the theocracy label is sensibly restricted to apply only to an extreme case of relationship between religion and politics, the subject is surely set for a prominent place in the political and cultural agenda of the twenty-first century.