... The administrative order which lies embedded in
the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, and which the American believers have championed
and are now establishing, should, under no circumstances, be identify with the
principles underlying present-day democracies. Nor is it identical with any
purely aristocratic or autocratic form of government. The objectionable
features inherent in each of these political systems are entirely avoided. It
blends, as no system of human polity has as yet achieved, those salutary truths
and beneficial elements which constitute the valuable contributions which each
of these forms of government have made to society in the past...
- Shoghi Effendi (Postscript written by the Shoghi Effendi to a letter written on his behalf to
the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, November 18,
1933; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, National Spiritual Assembly)
