IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v69y1975i02p526-542_24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Representative Bureaucracy: An Empirical Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Meier, Kenneth John

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Meier, Kenneth John, 1975. "Representative Bureaucracy: An Empirical Analysis," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(2), pages 526-542, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:69:y:1975:i:02:p:526-542_24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055400243086/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zuzana Murdoch & Jarle Trondal & Benny Geys, 2016. "Representative bureaucracy and seconded national government officials in the European Commission," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(4), pages 335-349, December.
    2. Mansbridge, Jane, 2017. "Recursive Representation in the Representative System," Working Paper Series rwp17-045, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Sungchan Kim & Soyoung Park, 2017. "Diversity Management and Fairness in Public Organizations," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 179-193, June.
    4. Erin Melton, 2014. "The Consequences of Conflict: An Evaluation of Racial Disparity and Organizational Performance," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 267-284, September.
    5. Bruno Frey & Werner Pommerehne, 1982. "How powerful are public bureaucrats as voters?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 253-262, January.
    6. Dennis Gabriel Pepple, 2020. "Linking Ethnic Identification to Organisational Solidarity," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 113-128, March.
    7. Parizek, Michal & Stephen, Matthew D., 2021. "The Increasing Representativeness of International Organizations’ Secretariats: Evidence from the United Nations System, 1997–2015," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 65(1), pages 197-209.
    8. William W. Boyer & Mun-Hee Kang, 2001. "Asia's Influence on Public Administration in the West," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 3-20, September.
    9. Friedman, Sam, 2022. "Climbing the velvet drainpipe: class background and career progression within the UK Civil Service," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117861, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Jussila Hammes, Johanna, 2013. "Civil servants’ education and the representativeness of the bureaucracy in environmental policy-making," Working papers in Transport Economics 2013:30, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    11. Matthew J. Nanes, 2020. "Policing in divided societies: Officer inclusion, citizen cooperation, and crime prevention," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 37(5), pages 580-604, September.
    12. Michal Parízek, 2017. "Control, soft information, and the politics of international organizations staffing," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 559-583, December.
    13. Suzanne M. Leland & Dustin C. Read & Michael Wittry, 2015. "Analyzing the Perceived Benefits of LEED-Certified and Energy Star–Certified Buildings in the Realm of Local Economic Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 29(4), pages 363-375, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:69:y:1975:i:02:p:526-542_24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.