Representative bureaucracy and the policy environment: Gender representation in Forty‐Four countries
| Published date | 01 December 2022 |
| Author | Seung‐Ho An,Miyeon Song,Kenneth J. Meier |
| Date | 01 December 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12789 |
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Representative bureaucracy and the policy
environment: Gender representation in Forty-Four
countries
Seung-Ho An
1
| Miyeon Song
2
| Kenneth J. Meier
3,4,5
1
School of Government & Public Policy,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2
School of Public Affairs and Administration,
Rutgers University –Newark, Newark,
NJ, USA
3
School of Public Affairs, American University,
Washington, DC, USA
4
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff
Unviersity, UK
5
Institute of Public Administration, Leiden
University, The Netherland
Correspondence
Miyeon Song, School of Public Affairs and
Administration, Rutgers University –Newark,
111 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102,
USA.
Email: miyeon.song@rutgers.edu
Abstract
The representative bureaucracy literature focuses on how
passive representation translates into substantive benefits
for the represented individuals. Although scholars have
found substantial empirical support for representation
based on gender, most studies have examined the Unit-
ed States, a country with high levels of democracy and gen-
der equality compared to much of the rest of the world.
This article first investigates whether the effects of gender
representation differ across countries using cross-national
education data. Evidence from 44 countries shows that rep-
resentative bureaucracy findings are relatively rare across
the world. Second, this article contributes to contextual the-
ories of representative bureaucracy by examining how the
policy and political environments influence the link between
passive representation and policy outcomes. The findings
suggest that bureaucratic representation is more effective
in countries where gender equality is high and political sup-
port for women is greater. These findings indicate that rep-
resentative bureaucracy is enhanced by favorable policy
and political environments.
The earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association (April 6–9, 2017) and Public
Management Research Conference (June 22–24, 2016).
Received: 17 November 2020 Revised: 30 August 2021 Accepted: 15 September 2021
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12789
900 © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Public Admin. 2022;100:900–922.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm
1|INTRODUCTION
Implementing policies responsive to the general public is a key element in democratic public administration. Because
democratic systems are premised upon representation where the citizens' will is reflected through public officials,
having bureaucrats who represent the interests of the citizens can augment this important political process. The the-
ory of representative bureaucracy suggests that public officials from disadvantaged backgrounds can play a role in
incorporating underrepresented groups' interests into the policy process (Mosher, 1968), thereby contributing to
better and more equitable policy outcomes. An extensive body of research has investigated the role of representa-
tive bureaucracy and found it has a significant relationship with policy outcomes for disadvantaged groups (Keiser
et al., 2002), the way citizens view the agency's legitimacy and trustworthiness (Riccucci et al., 2018), and citizens'
willingness to coproduce (Riccucci et al., 2016). While the literature has significantly advanced the theory of repre-
sentative bureaucracy, many studies were initially conducted within the United States, which raises concerns about
the applicability of representative bureaucracy theory to the non-US context (Bishu & Kennedy, 2020).
Fortunately, efforts to test the theory of representative bureaucracy internationally have been recently made in
Brazil (Meier & Funk, 2017), Canada (Gidengil & Vengroff, 1997), China (Xu & Meier, 2021), Denmark (Guul, 2018),
England (Hong, 2017), France (Meier & Hawes, 2009), Germany (Sievert, 2021), Hong Kong (Burns, 1980), India
(Dhillon & Meier, 2020), South Africa (Fernandez, 2020; Naff & Capers, 2014), and South Korea (Park, 2013;
Song, 2018). These studies, however, do not necessarily seek to account for national contexts in explaining represen-
tative bureaucracy in different countries; thus, they are not comparative in nature. Given the extensive variation
across countries in how political systems deal with representation, the lack of genuinely comparative research chal-
lenges the external validity of the theory (Groeneveld et al., 2015).
The purpose of this study is to probe the generalizability of the theory with a cross-national analysis and exam-
ine the conditions that facilitate the influence of representative bureaucracy on policy outcomes. In particular, we
test whether the relationship between passive and active representation remains valid across the world and under
what institutional contexts representative bureaucracy matters more. To study representative bureaucracy in a
cross-national context, one needs to focus on identities that exist in all countries. While race and ethnicity are com-
mon identities in many countries, there are highly homogeneous countries where racial differences are minimal. The
most promising identity for such cross-national studies, therefore, is gender. While gender is an important identity in
all countries, the degree of salience of gender can vary across countries because each country has different levels
and patterns of institutionalized discrimination against women (Keiser et al., 2002). Moreover, the effect of gender
representation could vary because women in some countries are more disadvantaged or subject to greater institu-
tionalized sexism. This variation will be useful in determining when representative bureaucracies arise and how much
impact they can have on policy outcomes.
Cross-national variations allow us to address the questions of when and where representative bureaucracy works
because each country has a different environment that can influence bureaucratic representation (Meier, 2019).
Building upon the existing literature, we first expect that the effect of representative bureaucracy exists across coun-
tries. We also argue that environmental factors shape bureaucratic behaviors by changing the costs and benefits of
adopting a representation role. Among the various environmental factors, this research focuses on the policy envi-
ronment (gender equality policies) and the political environment (female political representation) and examines how
these factors influence the link between female bureaucratic representation and policy outcomes for female clients
at the street level. Representation, including bureaucratic representation, after all, is a political process; and we
would expect that it would be enhanced when the policy and political environments were supportive (Meier & Smith,
1994).
This article makes two novel contributions to the study of representative bureaucracy. First, as far as we know,
it is the first cross-national study of representative bureaucracy that uses individual-level data that allow a matchup
of clients and bureaucrats (Bishu & Kennedy, 2020). While scholars have called for a more systematic individual-level
analysis and a cross-national perspective to the study of representative bureaucracy (Meier & Morton, 2015), we
AN ET AL. 901
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