IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/policy/v56y2023i4d10.1007_s11077-023-09513-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When active representation is not enough: ethnic minority street-level workers in a divided society and policy entrepreneurship

Author

Listed:
  • Hani Nouman

    (University of Haifa)

  • Nissim Cohen

    (University of Haifa)

Abstract

Can street-level workers from an ethnic minority in a divided society act as policy entrepreneurs and affect policy design? How their shared values with the homogeneous local government play a role in enabling policy entrepreneurship? Active representation refers to bureaucrats promoting the interests of the clients with whom they share the same characteristics or background. The assumption is that the behaviour of the bureaucrats—rather than their background, per se—affects citizens’ responses. However, in such cases, although they are active, street-level workers are fighting to change outcomes within institutions established by others. With regard to Arab social workers in Israel, we provide a new perspective on how ethnic minority street-level workers in a divided society may go beyond active representation in an attempt to directly influence policy design as entrepreneurs. We also identify the conditions that drive policy entrepreneurship and the strategies used to accomplish these goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Hani Nouman & Nissim Cohen, 2023. "When active representation is not enough: ethnic minority street-level workers in a divided society and policy entrepreneurship," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(4), pages 777-795, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:56:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11077-023-09513-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11077-023-09513-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11077-023-09513-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11077-023-09513-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rene R. Rocha & Daniel P. Hawes, 2009. "Racial Diversity, Representative Bureaucracy, and Equity in Multiracial School Districts," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(2), pages 326-344, June.
    2. Fritz Sager & Eva Thomann & Christine Zollinger & Nico van der Heiden & Céline Mavrot, 2014. "Street-level Bureaucrats and New Modes of Governance: How conflicting roles affect the implementation of the Swiss Ordinance on Veterinary Medicinal Products," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 481-502, May.
    3. Gwen Arnold, 2015. "Street-level policy entrepreneurship," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 307-327, March.
    4. Considine, Mark & Lewis, Jenny M. & O'Sullivan, Siobhan & Sol, Els, 2015. "Getting Welfare to Work: Street-Level Governance in Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198743705.
    5. Gitte Sommer Harrits & Marie Østergaard Møller, 2014. "Prevention at the Front Line: How home nurses, pedagogues, and teachers transform public worry into decisions on special efforts," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 447-480, May.
    6. Keiser, Lael R. & Wilkins, Vicky M. & Meier, Kenneth J. & Holland, Catherine A., 2002. "Lipstick and Logarithms: Gender, Institutional Context, and Representative Bureaucracy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(3), pages 553-564, September.
    7. Angel Molina, 2016. "A Manager is a Manager is a Manager? Race and Managerial Impact on Organizational Performance," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 39-53, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sébastien Lambelet, 2023. "Unintended policy integration through entrepreneurship at the implementation stage," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(1), pages 161-189, March.
    2. Na Tang & Muyu He, 2023. "The times make a hero: Street‐level policy entrepreneurship in major crisis responses in China," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(4), pages 490-508, July.
    3. Lisa Hansson & Åsa Weinholt, 2019. "New Frontline Actors Emerging from Cross-Sector Collaboration: Examples from the Fire and Rescue Service Sector," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 519-539, December.
    4. Diana Moreira & Santiago Pérez, 2022. "Who Benefits from Meritocracy?," NBER Working Papers 30113, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Neomi Frisch-Aviram & Nissim Cohen & Itai Beeri, 2018. "Low-level bureaucrats, local government regimes and policy entrepreneurship," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(1), pages 39-57, March.
    6. Oelberger Carrie, 2024. "Avoiding Burnout with Compassionate Accompaniment: A Novel Approach to Training, Selecting, Managing, and Regulating Frontline Workers," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 153-166, April.
    7. Huang, Francis L. & Cornell, Dewey, 2018. "The relationship of school climate with out-of-school suspensions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 378-389.
    8. Trang Pham & Yung-Yu Tsai, 2024. "The Roles of Faculty Hiring and Retention in Shaping Diversity and Representation in US Higher Education Institutions: A Retrospective and Prospective Analysis from 2001 to 2035," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 65(7), pages 1420-1460, November.
    9. Assadi, Anahita & Lundin, Martin, 2015. "Tenure and street-level bureaucrats: how assessment tools are used at the frontline of the public sector," Working Paper Series 2015:19, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    10. 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.
    11. Christopher Torres & Luke Fowler, 2023. "Creatively interpreting policy to move science forward: Implementing participatory technology assessment at NASA," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(3), pages 389-405, May.
    12. Muriel Surdez & Lorène Piquerez & Alexandre Hobeika, 2021. "Torn between responsibility and loyalty: how the veterinarian profession designs antibiotic resistance policies that shake its foundations," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 191-211, June.
    13. Nihit Goyal & Michael Howlett & Namrata Chindarkar, 2020. "Who coupled which stream(s)? Policy entrepreneurship and innovation in the energy–water nexus in Gujarat, India," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1), pages 49-64, February.
    14. Changkun Cai & Qiyao Shen & Na Tang, 2022. "Do visiting monks give better sermons? “Street‐level bureaucrats from higher‐up” in targeted poverty alleviation in China," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(1), pages 55-71, February.
    15. Jasminka Young & Aleksandar Macura, 2023. "Forging Local Energy Transition in the Most Carbon-Intensive European Region of the Western Balkans," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-29, February.
    16. Jaclyn Piatak & Zachary Mohr, 2019. "More gender bias in academia? Examining the influence of gender and formalization on student worker rule following," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(2).
    17. 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.
    18. Flynn Brendan, 2016. "The EU’s Maritime Security Strategy: a Neo-Medieval Perspective on the Limits of Soft Security?," Croatian International Relations Review, Sciendo, vol. 22(75), pages 9-37, August.
    19. Kendall Funk, 2019. "If the shoe fits: Gender role congruity and evaluations of public managers," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(1).
    20. Ryan Wong & Jeroen van der Heijden, 2022. "How does symbolic commitment strengthen the resilience of sustainability institutions? Exploring the role of bureaucrats in Germany, Finland, and the UK," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 10-22, February.

    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:kap:policy:v:56:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11077-023-09513-6. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.