What Type of Government Do the Baha’i Teachings Recommend?

Of the known forms of human governance — aristocracy, autocracy, theocracy, or democracy — which do the Baha’i teachings recommend, and why?

The answers to those questions reflect the fact that all three of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith — the Bab, Baha’u’llah, and Abdu’l-Baha — suffered terribly under the harsh, arbitrary, and repressive rule of authoritarian and theocratic governments.

The Bab’s new religion began in Shiraz, Persia, in 1844 and soon exploded into a massive spiritual movement throughout Persia, which was then ruled by the Qajar Dynasty, an aristocratic government heavily influenced by theocratic clerics. Because they were viewed as heretical by the clergy and government of Persia, more than 20,000 Babis perished in a series of massacres throughout the country. The Bab, on orders of the Shah’s Prime Minister, was publicly executed by firing squad in the city of Tabriz on 9 July 1850.

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Baha’u’llah, heralded by the Bab, proclaimed and established the Baha’i Faith in 1863 — which resulted in his imprisonment, torture, and exile to the farthest Ottoman Empire penal colony, the walled prison-city of Akka in what is now Israel. Despite the fact that he had committed no crime, Baha’u’llah spent the last forty years of his life as an exiled prisoner of the corrupt Persian regime of Nasiri-din Shah and the Ottoman ruler Sultan Abdu’l-Aziz.

Abdu’l-Baha, the son and successor of Baha’u’llah, led the world’s Baha’is until his passing in 1921. Exiled and imprisoned for 40 years along with his father, Abdu’l-Baha was finally released from the oppression of the Ottoman and Persian aristocracies after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which forced the ruler of the Ottoman Empire to hold democratic elections and restore the constitutional rule of law.

The Distinguishing Features of the Baha’i Revelation

Given their harsh and unwarranted treatment by rigid authoritarian regimes, you might expect that the central figures of the Baha’i Faith would recommend alternative, non-autocratic forms of governance — and you’d be right. 

Baha’u’llah, in his tablets to the world’s rulers and religious leaders, recommended democratic forms of governance, commending parliamentary democracies that retained a mild form of aristocracy. In this passage from his Tablet of the World, Baha’u’llah praised democratic constitutional monarchies like England’s, for example:

The system of government which the British people have adopted in London appeareth to be good, for it is adorned with the light of both kingship and of the consultation of the people. …

O ye that dwell on earth! The distinguishing feature that marketh the preeminent character of this Supreme Revelation consisteth in that We have, on the one hand, blotted out from the pages of God’s holy Book whatsoever hath been the cause of strife, of malice and mischief amongst the children of men, and have, on the other, laid down the essential prerequisites of concord, of understanding, of complete and enduring unity.

In one of his seminal letters to the world’s rulers, Baha’u’llah commended Queen Victoria for her support of democratic governance:

… We have also heard that thou hast entrusted the reins of counsel into the hands of the representatives of the people. Thou, indeed, hast done well, for thereby the foundations of the edifice of thine affairs will be strengthened, and the hearts of all that are beneath thy shadow, whether high or low, will be tranquilized.  

Constitutional Governance and the Rule of Law 

Baha’is believe in constitutional governance by the rule of law, as Abdu’l-Baha said in Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha: “The Constitutional Government, according to the irrefutable text of the Religion of God, is the cause of the glory and prosperity of the nation and the civilization and freedom of the people.”

Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith after the passing of Abdu’l-Baha, wrote in his book God Passes By that:

The establishment of a constitutional form of government, in which the ideals of republicanism and the majesty of kingship, characterized by Him as “one of the signs of God,” are combined, He [Baha’u’llah] recommends as a meritorious achievement …

In his travels to the Western hemisphere and the nations of Europe and North America in the early 20^th century after his release from four decades of unjust imprisonment, Abdu’l-Baha often focused on these democracy-related themes in his addresses and talks, as this speech given in New York in 1912 illustrates:

Consider what a vast difference exists between modern democracy and the old forms of despotism. Under an autocratic government the opinions of men are not free, and development is stifled, whereas in democracy, because thought and speech are not restricted, the greatest progress is witnessed. It is likewise true in the world of religion. When freedom of conscience, liberty of thought and right of speech prevail — that is to say, when every man according to his own idealization may give expression to his beliefs — development and growth are inevitable. 

It is very evident that in the future there shall be no centralization in the countries of the world, be they constitutional in government, republican or democratic in form. The United States may be held up as the example of future government — that is to say, each province will be independent in itself, but there will be federal union protecting the interests of the various independent states. 

Resist Oppression with Justice

The Baha’i writings praise democratic forms of government and the rule of law, not only because tyrannical and autocratic governments restrict freedom and treat their people unjustly, but because, as Abdu’l-Baha wrote to the Persian Baha’is more than a century ago, we should “resist oppression with justice” while we “promote civilization for all humanity:”

In short, O ye beloved of the Lord! Regard ye not the tyranny and iniquity of the ignorant. Resist oppression with justice, oppose tyranny with equity, and respond to bloodthirstiness with loving-kindness. Be the well-wishers of the advancement of Persia and its people, and strive to promote civilization for all humanity.

Despite continual attacks on democracy itself, the number of the world’s free democratic governments has risen rapidly since the revelation of Baha’u’llah. Up until the 19^th century, most of the leaders of nations and religions largely opposed democracy, and very few governments could be described as democratic; but today, according to the ”World Forum on Democracy,” electoral democracies exist in 120 of the 192 existing countries, representing almost 60 percent of the world’s population. 

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Could the Whole World Be a Democracy?

The Baha’i Faith itself incorporates important elements of democracy in its own administrative order. Baha’is have no clergy; all administrative decision-making takes place within democratically-elected groups of Baha’is made up of nine members — called Local and National Spiritual Assemblies at those respective levels and named the Universal House of Justice at the international level. Today, the Universal House of Justice is the only global governing body elected by those it represents throughout the world — although Baha’is believe that one day, the entirety of humanity could be peacefully ruled by an electoral democracy. 

In one of his interactions with an American government official during his trip to the United States in 1912, Abdu’l-Baha gave this advice, as reported by Shoghi Effendi in his book The World Order of Baha’u’llah:

You can best serve your country, was Abdu’l-Baha’s rejoinder to a high official in the service of the federal government of the United States of America, who had questioned Him as to the best manner in which he could promote the interests of his government and people, if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying the government of your own country to the relationships now existing between the peoples and nations of the world.

The Baha’i teachings often cite representative democracies as models of a future world system of governance — rejecting tyranny, outlawing slavery, and repeatedly calling for the establishment of constitutional democracy based on the rule of law — not only in all nations, but in a future federalized world order.

Toward that global goal, Baha’u’llah wrote:

There can be no doubt whatever that if the daystar of justice, which the clouds of tyranny have obscured, were to shed its light upon men, the face of the earth would be completely transformed.

The Great Being, wishing to reveal the prerequisites of the peace and tranquility of the world and the advancement of its peoples, hath written: The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men.

This compelling vision of a democratized global government supporting and upholding global peace inspires people all around the world — which explains why Baha’is diligently work every day to bring it into reality.