In this provocative book Max Wallace argues democracies should be republics characterised by constitutional separations of church and state. Wallace argues the separation of secular authority should be understood as the first separation of powers in a democracy, prior to, and equivalent to, the separations between the executive , legislature and judiciary. The failure of democracies to fully realise this distinction constitutionally has seen churches become immensely wealthy as a consequence of their centuries old tax-exempt status as charities that 'advance religion'. Their wealth is now a recognisable financial phenomenon - the Purple Economy.