Theory Of Representative Bureaucracy Research Articles

Lipstick and Logarithms: Gender, Institutional Context, and Representative Bureaucracy

According to the theory of representative bureaucracy, passive representation among public employees will lead to active representation in bureaucratic outputs. Existing research demonstrates that the link between passive and active representation exists for race but not for sex. Past research on this topic has not, however, taken into account the contextual environment that affects whether sex will translate into gender and lead to active representation in the bureaucracy. In this paper, we create a framework that specifies the conditions that affect whether passive representation results in active representation for sex and then test this framework using the case of education. We find that passive representation of women in education leads to active representation and that the institutional context affects the extent to which this link between passive and active representation occurs.

The Senior Executive Service: Gender, Attitudes, and Representative Bureaucracy

This article draws from the theory of representative bureaucracy to examine women's contributions to policy making in the federal Senior Executive Service (SES). Since women's life experiences differ in meaningful ways from those of men, the theory posits, they will make decisions differently than their male colleagues. Although scholars commonly assume that SES members influence policy, we know very little about executive women's attitudes and behavior. By using a survey administered to federal executives across the entire federal government, this article tests the conditions under which SES women are likely to press for women's interests and provide substantive representation to American women. The results indicate that women executives are most likely to adopt female friendly attitudes when they work in an agency or department with an office devoted to women's issues and when higher percentages of elite women are positioned within the organization's leadership ranks. I would like to thank Gregory B. Lewis, David H. Rosenbloom, and all the anonymous reviewers for their helpful

Policy of Preference: Lessons from India, the United States, and South Africa

Has the sanguine public policy of preference turned out to be a political soccer game? Has it been a victim of ideological fights? Can it undo the past? In India, it has become a tool of competitive populism. In the United States, it has been subjected to the ideological positioning of the Supreme Court and with all types of backlash, the policy appears to be in the doldrums. In South Africa, it is turned on its head with the majority enjoying preference resulting in the flight of the minority white tribe. Given all the tribulations, can altruism be rescued from politics? All modern nations have tried to reach out to minorities in an effort to their public service more representative. Such efforts are known by several names, the most commonly used being affirmative action. This article briefly compares the experience of three different nations in an effort to get a better handle on the issues revolving around this important public policy. The article provides a brief rationale for affirmative action, describes the policy initiatives and the politics of preference, and presents an assessment followed by some concluding remarks. The three nations chosen here are India, the United States, and South Africa. India, the largest working democracy, in an effort to transform an essentially unequal and hierarchical society into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic has over the last 50 years embarked upon a serious measure of reservations to undo institutionalized social discrimination practiced over the millennia. The United States of America, an immigrant nation and the most stable democracy, has to come to grips with its ethnic diversity and more importantly undo the impact of past discrimination against minorities. South Africa, after a long rule by a tiny minority, has come into the comity of modern democratic nations only recently with the transfer of power to the majority blacks in 1994. While the experience of India and the United States in this context is formidable and long, the South African experience is nascent but important. While it is not necessary to go into an elaborate discussion of the rationale behind preferential treatment and the criticism of it since much has already been written, it is useful briefly to recall the arguments. Those who support affirmative action argue mainly on four criteria. First, the concept of compensatory justice implies that the damage done by historical discrimination against some groups either from custom and tradition or through deliberate public policy, should be undone and due compensation should be extended to them. Second, distributive justice demands that the just distribution of social goods and wealth requires equal opportunity and access to all. Third, social utility theory asserts that everyone in the society has something to contribute and that the society is better off when everyone can participate. This is an argument for inclusion rather than exclusion, which is also quite democratic. Diversity in itself becomes a core value (Rosenbloom, 1998). Fourth, there is the concept of responsiveness, an outcome of the theory of representative bureaucracy, which suggests that if public service personnel become more diverse and representative of all segments of the community, the service itself will become more responsive to the needs of all. In addition, there is an emerging definition of merit based not solely on test scores, which may or may not be valid, but on an expanded concept of deserving in other ways. There are numerous arguments against affirmative action. The first is that of reverse discrimination, which argues that an effort in the present to prefer a minority in order to undo previous discrimination, perpetuates discrimination even though it is now being practiced on a different group. Second is the make argument, which posits that at best, preference should be given only to those individuals who actually experience discrimination and not to the whole class of which they are a part because some numbers of that class may be quite successful and well off. …

Bureaucracy as a Representative Institution: Toward a Reconciliation of Bureaucratic Government and Democratic Theory

Theory: Scholars have long debated the question of what assurance the populace can have that government bureaucracies, operating on the basis of specialized knowledge and exercising considerable discretionary authority, will act in a manner consistent with the public interest. One approach to this problem involves the representation of certain groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, in the public work force. This research systematically explores the potential for by examining how minority employment or passive representation is translated into the active representation of minority interests in the decisions of public agencies. The article proposes as the crucial intermediary concept in this process the assumption of a minority representative role perception by public administrators. Hypotheses: The article presents a model to explain the minority representative role as well as its likely consequences for decision-making affecting minority groups. Adherence to a minority representative role is influenced by an individual's personal characteristics, including race and ethnicity, organizational factors, and perceived expectations of their work obligations. To the degree that public administrators adopt a minority representative role they will be more likely to make decisions that reflect the interests of minorities. Methods: Ordinary least squares regression is used to test the hypotheses in data collected from a sample of county supervisors from the Farmer's Home Administration (FmHA) responsible for making loan determinations. This assessment offers a rigorous test of a theory of representative bureaucracy since the FmHA has not demonstrated great sensitivity to minorities in either employment or policy implementation. Results: Race, education, age, party identification, years employed by the federal government, and perceived work obligations are found to affect adherence to a minority representative role among the sample of FmHA administrators. Assumption of this role, in turn, increases the likelihood that these officials will make loan decisions favoring minority applicants. These results provide strong confirmation for the minority representative role concept and the underlying theoretical linkages of representative bureaucracy.

Public-Service Motivation: Building Empirical Evidence of Incidence and Effect

Three secondary data sources are used to answer four questions that relate to the theory of public-service motivation. The questions focus on the incidence of public-service reward motivations, consistency of these motivations over time, their impact on organizational performance, and the ramifications of a publicservice ethic for the theory of representative bureaucracy. Using descriptive and multivariate statistics, the analyses conclude that there are generalizable and stable differences in the reward motivations of public- and private-sector employees. There is also evidence that public-service motivation in the federal sector is positively related to organizational commitment. In contrast, there is no evidence that public-policy attitudes vary between those who are and those who are not public service oriented.

The Representativeness of State-Level Bureaucratic Leaders: A Missing Piece of the Representative Bureaucracy Puzzle

A long tradition of research in public administration revolves around the concept of representative bureaucracy (e.g., Krislov, 1974; Grabosky and Rosenbloom, 1975; Thompson, 1976; Cayer and Sigelman, 1980; Dometrius, 1984; Meier, 1993a; see also Meier, 1993b, for a comprehensive review of representative bureaucracy theory and research). According to the theory of representative bureaucracy, the demographic composition of the bureaucracy should mirror the demographic composition of the public. In this way, the preferences of a heterogeneous population will be represented in bureaucratic decision making. The theory has been more precisely defined in recent years to include the following types of representation: passive, where the bureaucracy has the same demographic origins as the population it serves, and active, where bureaucrats act on behalf of their counterparts in the general population. Active representativeness theory holds that values linked to demographic origins will be translated into programs, policies, or decisions that benefit individuals of similar origins (Meier, 1993b). Initially, representative bureaucracy theory generated a good deal of controversy because the notion of a public bureaucracy acting as a representative political institution was considered a perversion of democratic rule (Krislov and Rosenbloom, 1981). Despite these early challenges, the theory has gained considerable attention as a legitimation for bureaucratic policy making and as a justification for social policies such as affirmative action (Saltzstein, 1979; Rosenbloom and Featherstonhaugh, 1977). The preponderance of representative bureaucracy research has focused on the demographic representativeness of public bureaucracies, an issue that remains salient not only to researchers but also to elected officials with appointing authority.(1) The composition of government work forces is illustrative of the level of openness of bureaucracies to persons of all backgrounds (Meier, 1993b). It serves as an indicator of equality of opportunity and access. In addition, it can promote the legitimacy of government bureaucracies in that diverse communities may have a greater sense of enfranchisement when the bureaucracies that serve them (e.g., police, health, social services, etc.) are visibly diverse. In these ways, passive representativeness has important symbolic value. Our research joins the debate as to where the study of representative bureaucracy should be concentrated. We depart from previous research by focusing on agency leaders, as opposed to overall agencies or bureaucrats. Top political appointees serve as our locus of representativeness. Many scholars and practitioners have argued that representation is important not just at the upper, policy-making levels, but at the lower levels as well (Meier 1993b; Meier and Stewart, 1992; Thompson 1976). The interest is in street-level bureaucrats, a term coined by Lipsky (1980), which refers to those direct service providers (e.g., police officers, social workers) who have some discretion over the delivery of public services in their domains. In representative bureaucracy parlance, bureaucrats are an important cohort of public employees because they have the power to influence the quality and quantity of services their agencies deliver. While many have acknowledged the significance of bureaucrats as agency representatives (e.g., Thompson, 1976), few have contested the importance of agency leaders as pivotal bureaucratic decision makers. Policy leaders appointed by governors are an integral part of the policy-making machinery of state government. As the pace of devolution accelerates, political appointees will exercise substantial influence over policy development and participate in key resource allocation choices. This study supplies a missing piece of the representative bureaucracy puzzle in that it focuses on the most influential policy makers. …

WOMEN'S ACCESS TO FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE MANAGEMENT POSITIONS: THE ISSUE OF VETERANS‘ PREFERENCE

Within the framework of affirmative action and the theory of representative bureaucracy with a focus on organizational barriers, this paper demonstrates the lack of significant success of women in attaining positions of authority (executive, administrative, managerial) in the federal civil service. The role of veterans' preference policies in limiting the access of women to federal public service management positions is shown. Assuming the continuation of a strong lobbying effect in support of the continuation of veterans' preference policies, recommendations are made to rectify the organizational barrier to women posed by veterans' preference policies through the adoption of a point system which would assign to qualified non‐veterans additional points based upon qualifications which exceed the minimum.

The Role of Hispanic Public Administrators: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

Empirical data on the experiences of Hispanic administrators operating in governmental bureaucracies are reported in this study. Based on role-analysis methodology and representative bureaucracy theory, a survey research instrument is generated to measure role consensus between Hispanic and white administrators of the state of California in regard to administrative responsibility. Role conflict, as perceived by Hispanic administrators, and strategies for conflict resolution also are explored. The study serves to document specific areas of consensus and conflict between Hispanic and institutional role expectations. The findings have implications for the study of minorities in government, administrative role analysis, and representative bureaucracy in democratic societies.

Fallacies and Dilemmas: The Theory of Representative Bureaucracy with a Particular Reference to the Nigerian Public Service 1950 to 1986

Fallacies and Dilemmas: The Theory of Representative Bureaucracy with a Particular Reference to the Nigerian Public Service 1950 to 1986

City Managers, Police Chiefs, and Fire Chiefs in the South: Testing for Determinants and Impact of Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action

This study analyzes (1) the extent to which city managers, police chiefs, and fire chiefs in southern municipalities support affirmative action recruitment, (2) the factors which shape these attitudes, and (3) the extent to which bureaucratic attitudes contribute to actual recruitment patterns. Based predominantly on survey research, findings indicate that each set of public employers supports the principle of affirmative action. Yet, they are much less supportive of its implementation. Primary determinants of attitudes are found in demographic, political, and personal characteristics. In the case of affirmative action in the South, bureaucratic attitudes have negligible impact on bureaucratic behavior. Questions are raised about the linkages in the theory of representative bureaucracy.

Representative Bureaucracy and Bueaucratic Responsibility

Scholars concerned with representative bureaucracy have expressed considerable interest in the possibility of a linkage between active and passive representation. However, the theory of representative bureaucracy as a means of insuring administra tive responsibility remains widely misunderstood and poorly operationalized. This essay provides an explication of the theory, evaluates existing attempts to operation alize the concepts involved, and reaches conclusions regarding the utility ofthe theory as legitimation of bureaucratic policy-making. The discussion seeks to clarify some of the ambiguities concerning the theory and to demonstrate the methodological com plexities involved in attempts to test the existence of representativeness in bureaucracy.

Representative Bureaucracy: An Empirical Analysis

Past theories of representative bureaucracy have four weaknesses: they assume that traditional controls are ineffective without empirical evidence, rely on secondary variables, omit the effects of lifetime socialization, and do not consider the role of individual bureaus. Because of these weaknesses, a representative bureaucracy need not be a responsive bureaucracy. Although restricted by secondary analysis, this paper seeks to eliminate these failings and empirically demonstrate the unrepresentative nature of the United States federal bureaucracy. The representativeness of various grade classifications, special services, and bureaus is also measured; and the United States upper civil service is compared to that of five other nations. After an attempt to measure the values of bureaucrats, the future concerns of the theory of representative bureaucracy are outlined.