…the Bahá’í Administrative Order is an integral part of the
Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh; it is a divinely conceived system which, as the
Guardian explained in The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, “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.”
(From a letter dated 18 July 2000 written on behalf of the Universal
House of Justice to an individual believer)