Situating administrative responsibility: A comparison of medival Christian and medieval Islamic administrative thought

Contemporary studies of administrative thought allow only a limited range of viability for medieval and non-Western thought on the subject of public administration. This tendency belies the wealth of thought embedded within this broad literature. This paper investigates the matter of administrative accountability and responsibility through the lens of a comparative theorist of historical administrative thought. In order to assess the explanatory potential of early and non-Western administrative studies, two texts have been chosen, both previously unanalysed in conjunction (to the best of my knowledge) from the perspective of the administrative theorist - John of Salisbury's Policraticus and Abu al-Hassan Al-Mawardi's Al-Akham al-Sultaniyya w'al-Wilayat al Diniyya (The Ordinances of Government). Through an analysis of ideas of delegation and responsibility within these texts, the paper seeks to develop a critique of the place of revealed religious authority in the solution to the questions 'who are administrators responsible to?' and 'what are administrators responsible for?' © Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006.link_to_subscribed_fulltex