Citation

Rosenbloom DH. Am. Rev. Public Admin. 1974; 8(3): 159-177.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1974, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/027507407400800302

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The concept of representative bureaucracy has now been in the literature of public administration and political science for about three decades. It has been of greatest importance in the United States and has been used as an explanatory tool in discussions of the federal service. The concept remains somewhat ambiguous and under-developed, however, and its origins, meanings, and applicability have yet to be explicated fully. This essay seeks to develop the concept of representative bureaucracy further by analyzing the major forms of bureaucratic representation found in the federal service. The importance of such an enterprise is heightened at the present time by the fact the creation of a sociologically representative bureaucracy has recently become an important objective of federal personnel administration.