At last count, there was only one real
Buddhist theocracy last time I looked, and that was the
Tibetan buddhist dictatorship before
China took over. And that "
government" had no qualms using
torture and
execution to keep the
peasants in line. Hey,
Dalai Lama, I'm sure you missed your gold-plated
temple-
palace! After all, your
cronies did rob generations and generations of
Tibetan peasants to build it. And you definitely miss the dank
prison/
torture chamber. Don't you love how your
monks carve up rebelling
peasants? Wait, aren't you a
buddhist?
Benevolence?
Love? Oh,
power comes first. That's right. Damn, I'm drifting again.......
I don't think it is possible to have a government based on buddhist ideals. It is too vague, too idealistic, and has way too many holes open to intepretation by the people making the government, who turn out all too often to be fanatical dictators. I remember a certain Indian dynasty where the conquering prince was a devout buddhist. I forget the exact name, but it was way back. He set up a system of government based on his buddhist principles. And it turned out his laws were pretty draconian.
China's Tang Dynasty back in 800AD was predominantly buddhist, and they used execution widely. China has always used the death penalty. Thailand, a very buddhist country, executes criminals by the dozen. Japan, which is also somewhat buddhist, also uses the death penalty, although very rarely. The latest people to be dished out with the death penalty in Japan were the Aum cult members, I think.
I'm no expert on buddhism, but it seems all these buddhist countries use capital punishment. I still don't know of any countries with a government based on buddhist ideas. In any case, reincarnation isn't exactly a certain thing, so sparing a violent criminal who could be let loose in the future to kill more people on a risky bet that the person will be reincarnated as a nicer person decades later isn't exactly a good idea. Just my $0.02.