On Baha'u'llah's World Order: Slowly and imperceptibly rising amid the welter and chaos of present-day civilization

Call to the Nations

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Leaders of religion, exponents of political theories, governors of human institutions, who at present are witnessing with perplexity and dismay the bankruptcy of their ideas, and the disintegration of their handiwork, would do well to turn their gaze to the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, and to meditate upon the World Order which, lying enshrined in His teachings, is slowly and imperceptibly rising amid the welter and chaos of present-day civilization. More > http://bahai.org

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The nature of Baha'i governance never ceases to amaze me. -gw

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"asamblea nacional bahá'í de bolivia 2006," uploaded on May 16, 2006 by Steve Pulley on flickr

The Baha'i Commonwealth of the future, of which this vast Administrative Order is the sole framework, is, both in theory and practice, not only unique in the entire history of political institutions, but can find no parallel in the annals of any of the world's recognized religious systems. No form of democratic government; no system of autocracy or of dictatorship, whether monarchical or repulblican; no intermediary scheme of a purely aristocractic order; nor even any of the recognized types of theocracy, whether it be the Hebrew Commonwealth, or the various Christian eccelesiastical organizations, or the Imamate or the Caliphate in Islam - none of these can be identified or be said to conform with the Administrative Order which the master hand of its perfect Archtiect has fashioned.

This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government, without being in any sense a mere replica of any one of them, and without introducing within its machinery any of the objectionable features which they inherently possess. It blends and harmonizes, as no government fashioned by mortal hands has as yet accomplished, the salutary truths which each of these systems undoubtedly contains without vitiating the integrity of those God-given verities on which it is ultimately founded.

Shoghi Effendi, "The Adminstrative Order," in Adib Taherzadeh, The Child of the Covenant, pp. 408-409.