Does Sharia Require a Caliphate

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Question:

Does Sharia require rule by a caliphate, or can Muslims adopt democracy? - An exploration of whether Islamic law requires a caliphate system or allows democracy and other forms of government. :::

Answer:

Most important is that Shariah requires Islam as the constitution for governing the country/state which includes criminal and civil laws.

Shariah is in principle against democracy because democracy is the government of the people for the people and by the people (who can chose their representatives who in turn can change laws based upon majority sentiments) - however in Islamic shariah people don’t have a choice to change the existing constitution which is based on tenets of Islam.

Secondly a country can be a monarchy or kingdom or dictatorship and still have Islamic Shariah as the constitution. So the process of how the ruler is chosen is immaterial - as long as he has the power and authority to rule and he implements Islamic Shariah as the constitution.