Race, Respect, and Red Tape
Inside the Black Box of Racially Representative Bureaucracies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6295606 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Celeste Watkins-Hayes (Northwestern University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | Supplement 2 |
| Pages | i233-i251 |
| Publication date | 2011-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1053-1858 • E-ISSN: 1477-9803 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jopart/muq096 |
| OpenAlex | W2083051886 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 143 |
| References cited | 21 |
Racially representative bureaucracy theory suggests that black and Latino clients of street-level bureaucracies will uniformly experience the benefits of a racially diverse staff within these institutions and perceive it as working to their advantage. Conversely, street-level bureaucracy theory suggests that racial minorities working within these organizations are under massive constraints that significantly hamstring their efforts to exercise discretion in ways that might benefit minority clients. Using in-depth interviews of both recipients and providers of public cash benefits and food stamps, I find that the majority of black and Latina clients interviewed in a racially diverse welfare office do not view staff members who share their racial status as operating in ways that are distinctly informed by racial group commonality. A strong bureaucratic structure creates institutional boundaries that often restrict meaningful engagement between these groups despite social group commonality. In those instances in which black and Latina clients do have a racialized interpretation of their encounters with bureaucrats from their racial groups, they are not monolithically understood. Clients can read them as either pointed but welcomed interventions by racemates who offer wisdom on how to navigate the welfare system or heavy-handed maneuvers by more privileged members of their racial communities. Ultimately, this article argues that racial diversity among the workforces of street-level bureaucracies is important and can have positive effects on organizational dynamics as racially representative bureaucracy theory suggests, but organizational context and intragroup politics within minority communities greatly inform how race is mediated within these institutions
Bureaucracy · Context (archaeology · Critical race theory · Discretion · Diversity (politics · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Race (biology · Racism · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare reform · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Public Policy and Administration Research · Gender Studies · Law
Complexity in US Social Welfare Administration
Street-Level Organizational Theory
Race and Public Administration
Representative Bureaucracy and Fire Service Performance
Trends and Gaps
Administrative racism
Discretion in the Welfare State
Fairness Through Awareness
Representation and high-risk clients
Does bureaucratic representation constrain local exploitative revenue sources? The Florida experience
Admissions Officers’ Perceptions When Undocumented Students Seek In-State Resident Tuition Policy
Why Active Representation Varies
Administrative Discretion Through Changing Presidencies and Political Polarization
Identity and Intersectionality in Public Administration
Racially Divergent Patterns in the Relationship Between Same-Race Subordinates and Federal Supervisors’ Job Satisfaction
Domestic violence during the pandemic
Integrationen och arbetets marknad
The Hidden Tier of Social Services
General Practitioners' Discretion of Preventive Needs
Being Professional and Being Human. Professional’s Sensemaking in the Context of Close and Frequent Interactions with Citizens
When boards look like women
Co-producing ethnoracial categories
Experiences of Hispanic Families with Social Services in the Racially Segregated Southeast
Coproduciendo Categorías étnico-raciales
Value Discretion in a People-Changing Environment
Playing the Game of Outcomes‐based Performance Management. Is Gamesmanship Inevitable? Evidence from Theory and Practice
They do what they must
Theoretical Frontiers in Representative Bureaucracy
Social Equity in Public Administration
Impact of Race on the Implementation of Empirically Supported Treatments in Substance Abuse Treatment
Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management, social policy and social work
The emergence of externally active representative bureaucracy, a narrative review
Citizens' Inclusion in Public Services
What advances information sharing for sustainability performance management? Empirical evidence from U.S. local governments
Talking policy into being—How street‐level bureaucrats and vulnerable unemployed talk about labor market participation
Intersectional Burdens
The [Human Resource Management] Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Gestão Pública na Zona do Não Ser
Race, Poverty, and the Redistribution of Voting Rights
Construction of Justice at the Street Level
Going Easy and Going After
President Biden and Diversity in Executive Appointments
The Space in the Rules
They need more programs for the kids
Community practice as street-level bureaucracy
Activation policies and relational equality
Serving some and serving all
Expériences de l’État et imbrication des rapports sociaux
In public administration and public policy, can theory capture caste
Publicly Desired Color-Blindness
Intersecting paradigms of indigenous representation
Displacing the burden of representation
The Bureaucratic Encounter and Shifting Social Constructions Among Migrant Youth During the Daca Application Process
The fallacy of representative bureaucracy theory
Social and Political Pillars of Police Diversity
Inequality in frontline communication
Routines amid the unpredictable
Breaking the Silence
Representative Bureaucracy Buffering Adverse Policy Climates
Reduced perceived discretion, diminished felt accountability, and ineffective gender representation
The importance of discretion for welfare services to minorities
Bureaucratic Discretion, Client Demographics, and Representative Bureaucracy
Resistance or Capitulation? How Discrete Emotions Shape Citizens’ Interactions With the Administrative State
Walking the Talk of Social Equity? Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Decisionmaking About the Provision of Personal Resources
Ambition Is Priceless
Representative Bureaucracy, Environmental Turbulence, and Organizational Performance
Women in City Hall
A multi‐country systematic review of research on sanctions and equity in social welfare programs
Beyond Psychological Costs
Statisticians as Back-office Policy-makers
Migrants serving migrants? Representative bureaucracy at the front lines of migration management
A Cross-Sectional Study on the Relationship Between Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Role Identity and Their Discretionary Decision-Making Practice toward Citizen-Clients
Working Within a System of Administrative Burden
Race, Staff, and Punishment
Phenomenology in Public Administration
Cop Wisdom and the Democratic Consequences of Citizen–State Interactions
Social Services in Ethnically Mixed Cities
Racialized Emotional Labor
Administrative Law and Service Learning
The Importance of Race and Religion in Social Service Providers
Punitive White Welfare Bureaucracies
The Vernacular Ethics of Stigmatized Care
It’s Like Night and Day”
Under What Conditions Does Caseworker-Caregiver Racial/Ethnic Similarity Matter for Housing Service Provision? An Application of Representative Bureaucracy Theory
Iron Cage or Paper Cage? The Interplay of Worker Characteristics and Organizational Policy in Shaping Unequal Responses to a Standardized Decision-Making Tool
Equal Employment Opportunity
Careers of women public managers
Job Vacancy and Organizational Performance
Do Street‐Level Bureaucrats Discriminate Based on Religion? A Large‐Scale Correspondence Experiment among American Public School Principals
Administrative Easing
It Was Actually Pretty Easy”
How reducing documentation burdens impacts equity in access to small business Covid ‐19 relief funding
Bureaucratic Representation, Accountability, and Democracy
Opening the “black box” of public administration
When active representation is not enough
What explains variation in representation in the public sector? Predicting the presence of female officers in U.S. College Police Departments
Subsidized Marketplace Purchases Reduced Racial Disparities in Private Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act
Empathy, morality, and criminality
Organization matters. Policy entrepreneurship among Street-Level Bureaucrats in public employment services. Insights from an Italian case-study
An ethnographic examination of the experience of ecotherapy as an intervention for mental health in South and West Wales
Black Metropolis
Uplifting the Race
Ethnic Conflict in France
Together They Become One
Inside the Welfare Contract
Political Control versus Bureaucratic Values
The Implementation of Welfare Reform Policy
A Demand-Side Perspective on the Importance of Representative Bureaucracy
Black or Blue
Representative Bureaucracy
The Organization of Discipline
Latinos and Representative Bureaucracy Testing the Thompson and Henderson Hypotheses1
Linking Passive and Active Representation
Administrative Exclusion
Comparative Ethnic Politics in the United States
Latino Group Consciousness and Political Participation
"Becoming "Hispanic
People Processing Organizations
Perceptions of Racial Group Competition
Deciding to Discipline
Classed Out
| Unique citing works | 143 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 9,53 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 143 |