THE Christian Science church organization is designed to be as complete and as pure a democracy as it is possible to formulate in human language and practice. Though The Mother Church is the head of the organization, it does not exercise control over the branch churches in local affairs, nor does it claim to do so. The Manual of The Mother Church expressly forbids interference with the other churches by The Mother Church or any branch church.
Because The Mother Church has a membership scattered all over the world, its form of government is necessarily different from that of branch churches, whose membership is concentrated within a small area and consequently can meet and exercise its God-given right of self-government. In providing for the organization and operation of branch churches, Mrs. Eddy through the Manual was wisely led to make them thoroughly democratic. The more nearly the individual members of the branch organizations live up to and practise this fundamental of pure democracy, the better support these individuals and the branch churches give to The Mother Church in its work, which directly touches the whole world.
There has been a great deal of public discussion throughout the United States in the last few years regarding "the republican form of government" and "the democratic form of government." The republican form of government is government by representatives; that is, the people select certain persons to represent them in the making of laws and the enforcement of them. A democratic government is one in which the people perform these functions directly, without the aid of intermediaries. There is not a pure democracy among the civil governments of the world; at least, not among those people who are numerous enough to constitute a nation. The United States has a republican form of government, though the tendencies of the last few years have been to make it more democratic by making the representatives more directly amenable to the will of the majority.
