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Theodemocracy


Theodemocracy was a theocratic political system that included elements of democracy. It was theorized by Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to Smith, theodemocracy was meant to be a fusion of traditional republican democratic rights under the United States Constitution with theocratic principles.

Smith described it as a system under which God and the people held the power to rule in righteousness. Smith believed that this would be the form of government that would rule the world upon the Second Coming of Christ. This polity would constitute the "Kingdom of God" which was foretold by the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament. Theodemocracy was an influence for the short lived State of Deseret in the American Old West.

Early Latter Day Saints (Mormons) were typically Jacksonian Democrats and were highly involved in representative republican political processes. According to historian Marvin S. Hill, "the Latter-day Saints saw the maelstrom of competing faiths and social institutions in the early nineteenth century as evidence of social upheaval and found confirmation in the rioting and violence that characterized Jacksonian America." Smith wrote in 1842 that earthly governments "have failed in all their attempts to promote eternal peace and happiness...[Even the United States] is rent, from center to circumference, with party strife, political intrigues, and sectional interest."


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