Where Did You Serve? Veteran Identity, Representative Bureaucracy, and Vocational Rehabilitation

Abstract

The research on representative bureaucracy investigates whether higher levels of representation within public agencies affect policy outcomes. We expand this line of inquiry by examining the effect of symbolic representation on the clients’ perceptions of the vocational rehabilitation program administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. We test the link between passive representation and symbolic representation for Veteran identity. This is one of the first studies to investigate an identity not associated with immutable characteristics. We question how an identity related to a profession that an individual selects into, like Veteran status, can influence a client’s relationship with a government program. We find that Veteran clients of the vocational rehabilitation system perceive substantial differences in the behaviors of their counselor and report significantly higher levels of overall satisfaction with the program when they know or believe their counselor is also a Veteran. 《服务于何处？退伍军人身份、代表性官僚制及职业康复》 作者：丹尼尔M. 盖德，维琪M. 威尔金斯 代表性官僚制 (representative bureaucracy) 的研究主要探讨增强政府部门中文官群体对于辖区内人口特性的反映是否有助于增进政策效果。本研究项目着眼于退伍军人这一可变化性社会身份 (identity), 扩展扩展了代表官僚制的实证研究文献，因而具有前沿性。具体而言， 我们研究文官的象征性代表 (symbolic representation) 如何影响客户对于退伍军人事务部提供的职业康复服务的评定和满意度。我们主要验证对于退伍军人身份的消极性代表 (passive representation) 和象征性代表之间的联系。我们侧重于个人的职业身份(例如退伍军人的人份) 如何影响其与政府公共服务系统的互动关系。我们的研究表明，退伍军人的身份会显著影响客户对职业康复咨询师的印象。职业康复咨询师和接受服务的客户如若都有退伍军人的分身，客户往往对于职业康复服务有较高的满意度。