Representative Bureaucracy, Distributional Equity, and Environmental Justice

Abstract

This article explores the role of bureaucratic representation and distributional equity in the implementation of environmental policy, which has been shaped by the politics of identity, administrative discretion, and a contested discourse on the redistribution of public resources. The authors examine whether minority bureaucratic representation fosters policy outputs for race-related disadvantaged communities and whether the behavior of public administrators reflects distributional equity. Linking representative bureaucracy to environmental justice, this research contributes to the understanding of social equity in public administration and sheds light on the relationship between bureaucratic representation and democratic values. Analyzing a nationwide, block-group-level data set, the authors find that a more racially representative workforce in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promotes the agency's enforcement actions in communities that have large local-national disparities in minority populations and severe policy problems. The size of the bureaucratic representation effect is larger for neighborhoods that are overburdened with race-related social vulnerability.

Bureaucracy, Democracy, and Race: The Limits of Symbolic Representation

“…In other cases, individuals expressed that they were singled out unfairly for searches or other unwarranted contacts. The representational objective again was equity, not preferential treatment (Liang, Park, and Zhao 2020;Meier 2019).…”

How Bureaucratic Representation Affects Public Organizational Performance: AMeta‐Analysis

“…Although the interaction between representative bureaucracy and public organizational performance has been extensively examined, the conditions under which bureaucratic representation affects organizational performance have lacked close scrutiny. Indeed, it may be that the effect of bureaucratic representation is highly situational or contextual (Andrews, Ashworth, and Meier 2014;Dolan 2000;Meier 2019;Park 2020;Meier and Wilkins 2002;Wilkins and Williams 2008). Thus, it is imperative to examine how certain conditions or circumstances shape the impact of bureaucratic representation on organizational performance.…”

“…But while existing empirical studies examine identities from the perspective of demographics, the question of whether race, ethnicity, and/or gender will have a greater impact on organizational performance as compared to other identities (e.g., age, language, professional affiliation) has not been studied. Existing research suggests that race, gender, and ethnicity are the primary focus of the demographic dimensions since they are the most salient demographic characteristics being examined and have had the largest impact on policy-relevant attitudes, values, and bureaucratic behaviors (Hindera 1993;Meier and Stewart Jr 1992;Meier, Wrinkle, and Polinard 1999;Schuck 2018;Park 2020;Capers 2018;Capers, K. Juree 2019). That is, representative bureaucracy studies have focused on the effects of gender, race, and ethnicity on either political attitudes and policy decisions (Hindera 1993;Keiser et al 2002;Meier and Stewart Jr 1992;Grissom et al 2017;Kuan Heong 2018) or policy outcomes (Dee 2005;Dolan 2000;Gidengil and Vengroff 1997;Jamil and Dangal 2009;Kelly and Newman 2001;Meier and Bohte 2001;Selden 1997;Sowa and Selden 2003;Hawes 2008;Holt and Gershenson 2019;Kim 2003;Leon 2017;McBeath et al 2014;Nicholson-Crotty et al 2016).…”

Regulations Matter: Epistemic Monopoly, Domination, Patents, and the Public Interest

“…The particulars of their responsibility depend on their remit as regulatory bodies. For instance, to advance the public interest, an agency charged with protecting public health and the environment must correct environmental injustices (i.e., states of affairs when some social groups, relative to other groups, endure disproportionate risks or harms) (Liang et al, 2020). If the agency creates or allows conditions to exist that result in environmental injustice, it harms the public interest.…”