A New World Order

Within the Baha’i Faith there are three levels of institutions organising and guiding the

community.

LocalNational

International

It is known as the Baha’i administrative order, sometimes referred to as

‘The World order of Baha’u’llah’

All these institutions local,

national and international are similar in form.

All are elected by a totally secret ballot. There is no canvassing for votes, there are no manifestos and no pressure on the electorate. Nine members are elected to each of these institutions.

The Local Spiritual Assembly.

The community elect nine members to serve on the Local Spiritual Assembly for one year.

At the local level all Baha’is aged over twenty one can vote. All Baha’is aged over twenty one are also eligible for election.

Each individual votes for nine people that they think are most suitable to serve on the institution.

The National Spiritual Assembly

The National Spiritual Assembly is also elected annually.

Delegates who have been elected locally, later meet together at a national convention to cast their votes in order to choose the new National Assembly.

Members of the 2008National Spiritual Assembly

of the UK.

The Universal House of Justice

The Universal House of Justice is elected once every five years at an International

Convention held in Haifa, Israel.

All the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world take part in the election of the

Universal House of Justice.

How Baha’is Vote.

Baha’is are encouraged to pray and meditate before voting.

Baha’is are encouraged to get to know as many of the members of their community as possible, only by

doing this will they know something of the abilities and capacities of those individuals.

After this they should then consider what nine people

would be best able to serve together on an elected Institution.

All the votes cast are then counted and those

with the highest number of votes go on to form the Institution, either,

local, national or international.

Local

National

International

A New World Order

The Bahai administration is superbly flexible, it works all over the world in places wherever there are nine or more adult Baha’is.

Places as diverse as Los Angeles in California, Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, and villages in Botswana. All have working Baha’i institutions.

Baha’is meet locally every 19 days. This is the first level of Baha’i administration. Everyone, no matter what age has the opportunity to

consult about local, national and international issues and bring their own ideas to these

meetings.

These ideas can then, if required be passed on through all the administrative structures from

local to international.

It is not unusual for replies to come from the Universal House of Justice to a local

community.

The Local Spiritual Assembly

The individual

The NationalSpiritual Assembly

The Universal House of Justice

The NationalSpiritual Assembly

The Local Spiritual Assembly

The individual

This illustration shows

how the individual can send their ideas

and suggestions throughout the

Baha’i administrative

structureand receive answers.

A New World Order

The Baha’i Faith is organised in a new way. There is no clergy that can preach to or tell the individual what to do.

This is especially important when you consider the Baha’i idea of the individual investigating truth for themselves.

The Administrative Order is there to serve the community.

A group of young Bahá’ís

Baha’u’llah’s New World Order

The founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah, compared himself to a divine physician and spoke about two great changes that had to take place to heal the illnesses of the human race.

1. A revolution in our systems of government.2. A revolution in the spiritual lives of individuals.

For just over a hundred years Baha’is have been putting in place this New World Order.

Baha’is believe that this is incredibly important for the future of all humanity.

It is a whole new way of running affairs.

It is unlike any form of government that has ever existed.

To date there are over 170 National Spiritual Assemblies and over 17,000 Local Spiritual Assemblies on the planet.