Race in representative bureaucracy theory: A problematizing review

This study is an epistemic reflexive examination of race in representative bureaucracy theory, responding to the criticism that its conceptualization has been narrow. To counter socially reinforced ways of thinking, we use a problematizing review method to read broadly and selectively. Reviewing a sample of articles published in public administration (immediate research domain); political science (neighboring domain); sociology and Asian/cultural/ethnic studies (indirectly relevant domains) between 2017 and 2021 and paying attention to social constructionism, we examined how race and ethnicity are conceptualized. While the articles in public administration focused on a binary conception of race, treating differential outcomes as natural, articles sampled from other domains explained how ethnoracial categories were constructed, highlighted the contextual nature of differential outcomes, and engaged with the issue of racialization. To expand the conception of race in public administration, we must explore the process in which racial constructs became associated with unequal outcomes.