The Cultural and Civilizational Aspects of Religious Democracy, with a Focus on the Mahdist Utopian Society

The inquiry into the role and status of the populace in the establishment of governance and the administration of society has consistently constituted a critical discourse, encountering profound challenges from antiquity to the present era. Addressing this issue is particularly significant in contemporary times, wherein democracy and majority rule is widely upheld as principal criteria for legitimizing political systems within modern political thought. Against this backdrop, the proposition of a system grounded in religious democracy emerges as a novel and efficacious paradigm, fundamentally challenging prevailing governance models-whether autocratic, hereditary, or democratic. Religious democracy is predicated upon two foundational pillars: divine legitimacy and popular sovereignty. Its most complete realization is embodied in the ideal Mahdist society, whose salient attributes include the unification of religious culture, universal consensus and satisfaction, commitment to justice, and the elevation of collective rationality. Through a descriptive-analytical approach, this study seeks to elucidate the status of the populace within the framework of religious democracy and, drawing upon the cultural and civilizational characteristics of the Mahdist utopian society, critically examines the principal indicators of ideal governance.