Representative Bureaucracy

The readings in this collection provide a comprehensive guide to the established knowledge and emerging issues regarding democratizing public bureaucracies by making them socially representative. The book includes both classic and cutting-edge works, and presents a contemporary model for analyzing representative bureaucracy that focuses on the linkages between social origins, life experiences, attitudes, and administrators' decision making. The selections address many of the leading concerns of contemporary politics, including diversity and equal opportunity policy, democratic control of administration, administrative performance, the pros and cons of the new public management, and reinventing government. Many of the field's most cited works are included. Each chapter starts with an introductory summary of the key questions under consideration and concludes with discussion questions. With it's extensive selection of classic and contemporary readings, the book will have wide application for courses on bureaucracy, public administration, and public sector human resource management. List of Tables and Figures, Preface, Acknowledgments, Chapter 1. Theoretical Underpinnings: Why Does the Social Background of Public Administrators Matter?, Chapter 2. Public Personnel Policy and Social Representation: How Do Policies for Recruitment, Selection, Promotion, Pay, and Retention Affect Representative Bureaucracy?, Chapter 3. Social Representation and Public Administrators’ Worldviews: What Is the Linkage Between Social Background and Civil Servants’ Policy Preferences?, Chapter 4. Social Background, Life Experience, and Policy Advocacy: Why Do Civil Servants Act on Policy Preferences Derived from Their Social Backgrounds and Life Experiences?, Chapter 5. “Reinventing Government” and Representative Bureaucracy: The Impacts of Employee Empowerment, Outsourcing, and Entrepreneurship, Index