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A superstate is defined as "a large and powerful state formed when several smaller countries unite", [1] or "A large and powerful state formed from a federation or union of nations", [2] or "a hybrid form of polity that combines features of ancient empires and modern states." [3] This is distinct from the concept of superpower, although these are sometimes seen together. [4]
In the early 20th century, "superstate" had a similar definition as today's supranational organisations. In a 1927 article by Edward A. Harriman on the League of Nations, a superstate was defined as merely "an organisation, of which a state is a member, which is superior to the member themselves", in that "[a] complete superstate has legislative, executive and judicial organs to make, to execute and to interpret its laws". According to this definition, Harriman saw the League of Nations as a "rudimentary superstate", and the United States of America as "an example of a complete and perfect superstate". [5]
In World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, first published in 1938, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, described the anticipated world government of that religion as the "world’s future super-state" with the Baháʼí Faith as the "State Religion of an independent and Sovereign Power." [6]
In the 1970s, academic literature used the term "superstate" to indicate a particularly rich and powerful state, in a similar fashion to the term superpower. In this context, the term was applied to Japan, [7] [8] as contemporary academics suggested that Japan could displace the U.S. as the world's sole superpower, becoming the world's foremost economic power in the (then) near future because of its economic growth in recent decades. [7] The prediction did not come true.
In contemporary political debate, especially the one centred on the European Union, the term "superstate" is used to indicate a development in which the Union develops from its current de facto status [9] as a confederation to become a fully-fledged federation, known as the United States of Europe. For instance, Glyn Morgan contrasts the perspective of a "European superstate" to the ones of "a Europe of nation-states" and of "a post-sovereign European polity". [10] : 202 In her definition, a "European superstate is nothing more than a sovereign state - a tried and tested type of polity that predominates in the modern world - operating on a European wide scale", [10] : 204 i.e., "a unitary European state". [10] : ix Especially after the European debt crisis, economic literature started to discuss the role of European union as a European superstate. In particular, [11] they compared the emergence of a debt union to the federal structure of Germany.
The term was famously used by Margaret Thatcher in her 1988 Bruges speech, when she decried the perspective of "a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels", [12] and has since entered the eurosceptic lexicon. Tony Blair argued in 2000 that he welcomed an EU as a "superpower, not a superstate". [13]
In a 2022 study, Alasdair Roberts argues that superstates should be construed as hybrid forms of political organization: "Every superstate carries the burdens of statehood, that is, the duties of intensive governance and respect for human rights that are carried by all modern states. But superstates also carry the burdens of empire, principally the burden of holding together a large and diverse population spread across a vast territory. Superstates are distinguished from ordinary states by problems of governance that are intensified by scale, diversity, and complexity". [14] : 18 In this view, a superstate need not be highly centralized, just as some empires were not highly centralized. Thus is it possible to describe the European Union as a superstate without conceding that is a "centralized, unitary leviathan". [14] : 121
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, born ʻAbbás, was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith who designated him to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was later cited as the last of three "central figures" of the religion, along with Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb, and his writings and authenticated talks are regarded as sources of Baháʼí sacred literature.
Covenant-breaker is a term used in the Baháʼí Faith to refer to a person who has been excommunicated from the Baháʼí community for breaking the Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh, meaning actively promoting schism in the religion or otherwise opposing the legitimacy of the chain of succession of leadership. Excommunication among Baháʼís is rare and not used for transgressions of community standards, intellectual dissent, or conversion to other religions. Instead, it is the most severe punishment, reserved for suppressing organized dissent that threatens the unity of believers.
The Kitáb-i-Aqdas is the central religious text of the Baháʼí Faith, written by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the religion, in 1873. Though it is the main source of Baháʼí laws and practices, much of the content deals with other matters, like foundational principles of the religion, the establishment of Baháʼí institutions, mysticism, ethics, social principles, and prophecies. In Baháʼí literature it is described as "the Mother-Book" of the Baháʼí teachings, and the "Charter of the future world civilization".
Shoghí Effendi (; Persian: شوقی افندی; 1 March 1897 – 4 November 1957) was an Ottoman-born Iranian religious figure and the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith from 1921 to 1957. As the grandson and successor of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he was responsible for creating a series of teaching plans that oversaw the expansion of the Baháʼí Faith to a number of new countries, and also translated many of the written works of crucial Baháʼí leaders. Upon his death in 1957, the Hands of the Cause, which included his Canadian wife Rúhíyyih Khánum, took on the role of overseeing the transfer of the religion's supreme legal authority to the Universal House of Justice, which has held elections every five years since 1963.
The Universal House of Justice is the nine-member supreme ruling body of the Baháʼí Faith. It was envisioned by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, as an institution that could legislate on issues not already addressed in the Baháʼí writings, providing flexibility for the Baháʼí Faith to adapt to changing conditions. It was first elected in 1963, and subsequently every five years, by delegates consisting of the members of Baháʼí National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world.
Amatu'l-BaháRúhíyyih Khánum was an American-born Canadian Hand of the Cause of the Baháʼí Faith. She was the wife of the Ottoman-born Iranian religious figure Shoghi Effendi, who succeeded his grandfather ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to become the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith between 1921 and 1957. Appointed as a Hand of the Cause in 1952, her primary responsibility was to expand and protect the global Baháʼí community. In this capacity, she was among the leading Hands of the Cause who, following Effendi's death in 1957, took on the role of ensuring the transfer of the religion's supreme legal authority to the Universal House of Justice, which has governed out of Haifa, Israel, since 1963.
The following is a basic timeline of the Bábí and Baháʼí religions emphasizing dates that are relatively well known. For a more comprehensive chronology of the timeline, see the references at the bottom.
The Shrine of the Báb is a structure on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, where the remains of the Báb, founder of the Bábí Faith and forerunner of Baháʼu'lláh in the Baháʼí Faith, are buried; it is considered to be the second holiest place on Earth for Baháʼís, after the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh in Acre. Its precise location on Mount Carmel was designated by Baháʼu'lláh himself to his eldest son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, in 1891. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá planned the structure, which was designed and completed several years later by his grandson, Shoghi Effendi.
The Baháʼí World Centre buildings are buildings that are part of the Baháʼí World Centre in Israel. The Baháʼí World Centre buildings include both the Baháʼí holy places used for pilgrimage and the international administrative bodies of the Baháʼí Faith; they comprise more than 20 different administrative offices, pilgrim buildings, libraries, archives, historical residences, and shrines. These structures are all set amidst more than 30 different gardens or individual terraces.
In the Baháʼí Faith there are two covenants, deemed the 'greater' and 'lesser'. The greater covenant refers to an agreement of progressive revelation: that God will send messengers about every thousand years, and it is humanity's duty to recognize them and respond to their teachings. The lesser covenant is the agreement between the faith's founder, Baháʼu'lláh, and his followers, regarding the succession of leadership and the maintenance of unity.
Spiritual Assembly is a term given by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to refer to elected councils that govern the Baháʼí Faith. Because the Baháʼí Faith has no clergy, they carry out the affairs of the community. In addition to existing at the local level, there are national Spiritual Assemblies. Spiritual Assemblies form part of the elected branch of the Baháʼí administration.
Progressive revelation is a core teaching in the Baháʼí Faith that suggests that religious truth is revealed by God progressively and cyclically over time through a series of divine Messengers, and that the teachings are tailored to suit the needs of the time and place of their appearance. Thus, the Baháʼí teachings recognize the divine origin of several world religions as different stages in the history of one religion, while believing that the revelation of Baháʼu'lláh is the most recent, and therefore the most relevant to modern society.
The Baháʼí Faith was formed in the late 19th-century Middle East by Baháʼu'lláh, and teaches that an official line of succession of leadership is part of a divine covenant that assures unity and prevents schism. There are no major schisms in the Baháʼí Faith, and attempts to form alternative leadership have either become extinct with time or have remained in extremely small numbers that are shunned by the majority. The largest extant sect is related to Mason Remey's claim to leadership in 1960, which has continued with two or three groups numbering at most 200 collectively, mostly in the United States.
The leadership of the Baháʼí Faith has created goal-oriented Baháʼí teaching plans, spanning 1–10 years each, to spread the Baháʼí Faith. The plans began in the 1930s and 1940s as teaching goals for certain countries and in 1953 became coordinated globally, often with a focus on sending travelling teachers to new countries. Shoghi Effendi initiated the plans before his death in 1957, and the Universal House of Justice has initiated the plans since 1964. From 1964 to 2000, there were six international Baháʼí teaching plans of varying lengths.
The Baháʼí Faith has its background in two earlier movements in the nineteenth century, Shaykhism and Bábism. Shaykhism centred on theosophical doctrines and many Shaykhis expected the return of the hidden Twelfth Imam. Many Shaykhis joined the messianic Bábí movement in the 1840s where the Báb proclaimed himself to be the return of the hidden Imam. As the Bábí movement spread in Iran, violence broke out between the ruling Shiʿa Muslim government and the Bábís, and ebbed when government troops massacred them, and executed the Báb in 1850.
Baháʼí literature covers a variety of topics and forms, including scripture and inspiration, interpretation, history and biography, introduction and study materials, and apologia. Sometimes considerable overlap between these forms can be observed in a particular text.
The conception of a "new world order" found in the Baháʼí teachings refers to the gradual emergence of integrative political norms to be freely adopted by the nations and peoples of the earth, leading to a new system of worldwide governance that incorporates ideals of unity, justice, prosperity and continuing advancement for all nations, races, creeds, and classes. These new institutional forms of governance, anticipated to arise in response to unprecedented global challenges, would uphold the dignity and well-being of all, where “each member of the human race is born into the world as a trust of the whole.” The idea of global solidarity and unification, involving the political, moral and spiritual transformation of individual and collective behaviour, and leading to a flourishing global civilisation, is at the heart of Baháʼí vision, belief and action.
Opponents of the Baháʼí Faith have accused the faith's followers of committing various acts of political mischief, such as having a supposed "dual loyalty" and being secretly in the employ of foreign powers supposedly inimical to the interest of their home state. These accusations, together with others with a more theological bent, have been used to justify persecution of adherents of the Baháʼí Faith and the religion itself.
Bahíyyih Khánum was the only daughter of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, and Ásíyih Khánum. She was born in 1846 with the given name Fatimih Sultan, and was entitled "Varaqiy-i-'Ulyá" or "Greatest Holy Leaf". Brought up through the trying times her family lived through, in adulthood she served the interests of the religion and was even occasionally trusted with running the affairs of the religion. Greatly favoured by Bahá'u'lláh, she is seen within the Baháʼí Faith as one of the greatest women to have lived. According to Baháʼís, every dispensation has one particular holy woman or "immortal heroine". In the time of Jesus it was the Virgin Mary, the time of Muhammad it was his daughter Fatima Zahra and during the Báb's dispensation it was Táhirih. Baháʼís believe that Bahíyyih Khánum is the outstanding heroine of the Baháʼí dispensation.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Baháʼí Faith.