The Islamic External Critics of Public Administration A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

"Whence did you enslave people who were born free?" (Umar Ibn-al-Khattab)
The growth of public administration and the increasing influence of
administrative agencies on public policy make the perennial political
problem of the control of administration more important than ever.
Governmental activities nowadays touch so many people, in so many
ways, that citizens' dissatisfaction with administration is inevitable.
Many countries have sought protections and safeguards against
oppressive, mistaken, or careless exercise of public authority.
Although the bureaucrats act as a leveling and rationalizing force,
they are susceptible to certain persistent maladies. W.A. Robson has
identified these as excessive sense of self-importance; indifference to the
feelings or convenience of others, obsessive to established practice
regardless of resulting hardships, persistent addiction to formality, and
astigmatic inability to perceive the totality of the government because of
preoccupation with one of its parts. When these maladies exist, they
may not be instantly recognized and treated, because administrative
work often occurs beyond the gaze of professional observers. Moreover,
many of the individuals with whom administrators deal offensively are
likely to be anonymous and the injustices invisible.
The purpose of this study is to show that Islam had developed
prominent external critics of administration long before the major
countries had developed their current protective mechanisms against
bureaucratic excesses. The main objective is to integrate the major
Islamic critics of administration found in lslamic literature .and
their current equivalent in modern countdea so that they become more
compatible with the contextual timing and demands of daily
administrative life. A comparative approach will facilitate the ...