E-Governance Practices in Muslim Societies: A Study of Public Administration Through an Islamic Ethical Lens

Abstract

The e-governance boom has brought about drastic changes in the way of administration of people, through reorganizing service delivery, decision making and the relationship between the state and the citizens. Though a lot of studies have been conducted on the technical and managerial aspects of the e-governance, the ethical implications of e-governance are not fully studied especially with respect to Muslim societies where governance is strongly embedded in the religious and moral principles. This paper presents a qualitative, normative evaluation of e-governance in Muslim societies using the Islamic ethical principles. Based on classical and contemporary Islamic literature and drawing on the work of the theory of public administration and digital governance, the paper utilizes the thematic analysis to assess the main ethical aspects of e-governance, such as accountability, transparency, privacy, participation, and social justice. The results show that despite the fact the goals of e-governance as a whole are in line with the Islamic values of justice, social well-being, and responsibility, there exist major ethical contradictions on issues pertaining to data surveillance, digital marginalization, and a lack of moral responsibility. It is the contention of the study that the moral rightness or wrongness of e-governance within the context of Muslim societies is not only based on efficiency or technological development but rather on its adherence to Islamic conceptions of governance especially the end-purposes of maqasid al-shari. The article enhances a more pluralistic and normatively based approach to digital governance and provides insight into the implementation of ethically sensitive e-governance changes in Muslim societies, by incorporating the Islamic ethical theory into the domain of public administration scholarship.