A Good Governance from the Viewpoint of the Holy Quran and Nahj al-Balagha with an Emphasis on Responsibility

From the past till nowadays, the role of regimes and governments in the development or backwardness of societies has always been a controversial issue, particularly in the last few decades, it has increasingly become important, and some issues such as small government, entrepreneurial government, e-government, and efficient government have emerged as a dominant paradigm; but recently, the concept of “good governance” has applied in the literature of development more and more. The theory of good governance, which is defined by different characteristics like responsibility, is a pattern for human sustainable development. This article aims to confirm whether the responsibility, which is considered as a characteristic of good governance from the view of international system, can clearly be traced in the Holy Quran, Nahj al- Balagha, and Imam Ali’s governance ways reported in historical documents. After reviewing the responsibility in Alavi governance, it was found that Imam Ali not only theoretically believed in the good governance, but also practically always committed to that. The data were collected by library and note-taking methods and then they were analyzed.