Jake Sachs
Research Mentor: Karla Magana
Mentor Department: Political Science and Public Policy, LSA
Author(s): Jake Sachs, Karla Magaña, Chenzira McLoyd
Session: Session 1 (9:00 AM – 9:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 141
Abstract
This project focuses on representative bureaucracy, which is the ability for bureaucrats to represent the public they serve through shared demographic characteristics, such as race or gender. These shared characteristics are believed to shape how agencies create policy. While there has been extensive research on how race as a shared demographic affects representation, fewer scholars have examined this at the federal level. This study, therefore, asks: how do variations in race and political ideology within federal agencies relate to the expectations of representative bureaucracy theory? To answer this question, we use a variety of methods, including a literature review of scholarship on representative bureaucracy, analysis of a dataset of U.S. cabinet member characteristics over the past 30 years, and a dataset of racialized terms used in Veterans Affairs legislation. Using these approaches, we create visualizations and draw conclusions about what the data reveals about representative bureaucracy. Our preliminary findings suggest that as the proportion of people of color in federal agencies increases, the amount of race-based discussion in policymaking also increases. Additionally, at a descriptive level, we find that Democratic administrations are more likely to appoint women and people of color than Republican administrations. Answering this question is important today because identifying relationships between race, partisanship, and representation can shape how we understand politics and help inform strategies to address racial inequality in the United States.
