Definition
Administrative action that purposefully pursues the interests of persons with whom administrators share common bonds.
Introduction
The theory of representative bureaucracy holds that an organization, which mirrors the demographic characteristics of the population it serves will be more responsive to the interests of the public from which it is drawn. This is based on the idea that in a democracy, public administrators should not only mirror the society from which they are drawn, they should also hold values in common with that society. Such a bureaucracy would be more responsive to the people government represents. Following this logic leads to assumption that the presence of minorities in public agencies ensures greater responsiveness to minority concerns.
There is an important distinction between passive and active representation. Passive or “sociological representation”...
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References
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Gibran, J.M. (2017). Active Representation. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_658-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_658-1
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