The politics of redistribution in local governments: the effect of gender representation on welfare spending in California counties

Abstract

: This research explores the impact of gender representation at the state and local levels on redistributive choices. This research also examines whether female officeholders moderate the impact of the local economy and institution on welfare spending. Hypotheses are tested across 58 counties in California over ten years, between 2001 and 2010. According to the fixed effect models, women in state legislature had a positive effect on local welfare spending, while women on county boards had no significant effect. However, a positive moderating effect of women on county boards during economic hardship was found. Three categories of control variables include institutional factors, such as the introduction of Proposition 1A and county home rule; political factors, such as the political preference of each county's residents and strength of non-profit organisations; and socio-economic factors, such as intergovernmental revenue, unemployment rate and demographics. Counties with more intergovernmental revenue and supporters of Democratic presidential candidates are likely to spend more on welfare services.

Representative Bureaucracy, Distributional Equity, and Environmental Justice

“…First, we observe that minority representation in the EPA workforce promotes the agency's policy outputs for local communities with high levels of race‐related social vulnerability and a severe policy problem. Consistent with prior research on representative bureaucracy, this finding suggests that public administrators, like elected officials, can play a critical role in representing the general public, particularly those who have historically been marginalized and underserved, and acting in their interests (Groeneveld et al ; Keiser ; Kennedy ; Park , ; Selden ). It implies that in a society of growing diversity, a more representative public sector has a profound positive impact on the responsive management of government programs.…”

“…For instance, the presence of minority bureaucrats may affect the behavior not only of the focal group but also of nonfocal groups and nonminority bureaucrats (Favero and Molina ; Meier and Nicholson‐Crotty ; Vinopal ). Also, more generally, political representation and its impact on bureaucrats in government agencies may contribute to the effectiveness of bureaucratic representation (Meier ; Nicholson‐Crotty, Grissom, and Nicholson‐Crotty ; Park , ; Park and Liang ).…”

“…Having more women in police forces is related to higher arrest rates for sexual assault (Meier and Nicholson‐Crotty ), and having more minority police officers is associated with a decrease in police misconduct (Hong ). Having more women in county agencies buffers local welfare spending against potential cutbacks during economic hardship (Park ). Also, a racially representative public workforce improves organizational outcomes by changing clients’ perceptions or behaviors through their interactions with government administrators (Andrews, Ashworth, and Meier ; Riccucci, Van Ryzin, and Lavena ; Theobald and Haider‐Markel ).…”

“…Empirical evidence from public education suggests that teachers with the focal identity (e.g., minority, female) adhere to the principle of distributional equity, regardless of the specific characteristic of educational benefits (e.g., for non‐zero‐sum student achievement, see Keiser et al ; Meier, Wrinkle, and Polinard ; for zero‐sum educational resources, see Nicholson‐Crotty, Grissom, and Nicholson‐Crotty ). Women officeholders become more protective of policy choices benefiting women and minorities when the policy choices are at stake under cutback pressure (Park ). Taken together, these findings imply that the active advocacy of representative administrators for policy benefits of the focal group may decrease or cease beyond the equity point, attesting to minority or female bureaucrats’ efforts to compensate for preexisting inequities and redistribute resources in an equitable way (Meier ).…”

“…The issue of environmental justice illustrates the debates on the distribution of benefits and costs among different social groups and government's role in the redistribution of public goods and services in the United States. More important, related to representative bureaucracy and distributional equity, several key contextual conditions (e.g., the salience of particular identities, bureaucratic discretion, and zero‐sum setting for resource redistribution; see Keiser ; Meier ; Park ) that affect the link between passive and active representation and shape distributional equity are embodied in contemporary environmental policy.…”