Democracy, I do not conceive that ever God did ordain it as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the people be governors, who will be governed? As for monarchy and aristocracy, they are both of them clearly approved and directed in Scripture, yet so as referreth the sovereignty to Himself, and setteth theocracy in both, as the best form of government in the commonwealth as well as in the church.

— John Cotton (1584-1652), Puritan minister, American colonizer