Administrative history
Administrative history is a historiographic field which looks at the history of state administrations and bureaucracies. Originally considered a sub-field of Administrative Sciences that was intended to improve contemporary governance, administrative history has become an increasingly separate field.[1] Administrative historians study the changes in administrative ideologies and administrative law while also looking at civil servants and the relationship between government and society.[2] It is related to political and constitutional history. The discipline is most common in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy.[3] In 1965, when fields like social history were becoming ever more popular, G. R. Elton (then a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge) defended administrative history as the only field which can explain how the machinery of government actually worked in the past.[4]
Journals[edit]
Academic journals which specialise in administrative history include:
- Jahrbuch für europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte (JEV)[1]
The New Administrative History[edit]
Historians researching the medieval and early modern periods have begun to reexplore the possibilities of administrative history. This movement has been described as the "New Administrative History".[5] It embraces a broad range of approaches, including interdisciplinary and theoretical work – as exemplified by John Sabapathy – and also more traditional institutional approaches, revisiting the methods of influential administrative historians such as T. F. Tout and G. R. Elton.[6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Raadschelders 1994, p. 117.
- ^ Raadschelders 1994, pp. 119–20.
- ^ Raadschelders 1994, p. 118.
- ^ G. R. Elton, 'The Problems and Significance of Administrative History in the Tudor Period', Journal of British Studies 4, no. 2 (1965), 18-28.
- ^ Laura Flannigan, "Review of Who Ruled Tudor England: An Essay in the Paradoxes of Power", EHR (2022).
- ^ John Sabapathy, Officers and Accountability in Medieval England 1170-1300 (OUP, 2014), p. 11; Matt Raven, 'Financing the Dynamics of Recruitment: King, Earls and Government in Edwardian England, 1330-60', in Gary P. Baker, Craig L. Lambert and David Simpkin, eds., Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton (Boydell and Brewer, 2018).
Bibliography[edit]
- Raadschelders, J.C.N. (1994). "Administrative History: Contents, Meaning and Usefulness". International Review of Administrative Sciences. 60: 117–29. doi:10.1177/002085239406000107. S2CID 144037125.
- Raadschelders, J.C.N. (1998). Handbook of Administrative History. London: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56000-315-1.
External links[edit]
- Constitutional and administrative history at "Making History" (Institute of Historical Research)
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