Administrative Responsibility

Synonyms

Accountability; Legislative oversight of bureaucracy

Definition

Administrative responsibility is the control of officials in administrative organizations by officials with legitimate political authority.

Introduction

During the twentieth century, the wealthiest countries of the world experienced growth, and war, beyond previous experience. The growth of the administrative state in the developed democracies was a part of this economic and military expansion and gave rise to theoretical development of the concept of administrative responsibility. We should note the discipline’s discussion of administrative responsibility overlaps substantially with that of accountability, the former coming out of a focus on the wealthy representative democracies. There is no disciplinary consensus on the boundaries of either concept.

The Classical Definition

Max Weber offered an account of bureaucracy that, in many ways, the field is still trying to catch up to (Weber 1978, Chapter XI.). Weber...